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Dessert

Baked Bread Pudding

A sweet pudding made from grated bread, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, candied peel, bitter almonds, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Bread Pudding

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Put the milk into a stewpan with the bitter almonds; let it infuse for 1/4 hour.

  2. Bring the mixture to the boiling point.

  3. Strain it onto the bread crumbs, and let the crumbs remain until cold.

Make and bake

  1. Add the eggs, which should be well whisked, the butter, sugar, and brandy, and beat the pudding well until all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

  2. Line the bottom of a pie-dish with the candied peel sliced thin.

  3. Put the mixture into the pie-dish and bake for nearly 3/4 hour.

  4. Optional: Beat in a few currants with the mixture instead of candied peel, and do not lay them at the bottom of the pie-dish.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

234Calories
15 gProtein
14 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Brandynot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Brandy + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that moistens and softens the bread crumbs.
Eggs
Set as the pudding bakes, giving it structure and a tender, custard-like body.
Bitter almonds
Infused into the milk to add a distinct almond aroma and flavour.
Brandy
Adds a warm aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Egg proteins set as they heat, so overbaking makes the pudding dry, firm and prone to curdling or weeping. Bake until the centre is just set and remove it promptly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, brandy, egg):

  1. Cocoafits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, brandy, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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