Name: Boiled Bread Pudding
Ingredients: one quart of bread crumbs soaked soft in a cup of hot milk; one cupful of molasses; one cupful of fruit; one teaspoonful each of spices; one tablespoonful of butter; one teaspoonful of soda; two quarts of milk into a double boiler; two pounds of sweet almonds; four ounces of crumbs of bread; one-half pints of cream; two teaspoonfuls of orange-flower water; four ounces of melted butter; a cup of hot milk; a teaspoonful of salt; a cupful of flour sifted; a cupful of sugar; a gill of brandy; a pound of blanched almonds very fine till they become a paste; a pound of loaf sugar; two heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted flour that has been stirred to a cream; six well-beaten eggs; eight eggs; four whites of eggs; salt

Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

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.

Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs: Soaked in hot milk, they form the soft body of the pudding.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the pudding.
Flour: Adds structure, helping the batter set firm after steaming.
Soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise.

The step that matters

Boil or steam three hours. The pudding must cook gently and steadily for the full time so the flour and crumbs set through. Letting the water boil dry or drop too low can leave it heavy or uneven.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, molasses, butter, almond, cream, flour):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, molasses, butter, almond, cream, flour. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Fruit	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Brandy	not in our table	0

Boiled Bread Pudding