Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Bread and Butter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bread
Cut stale bread into thin slices.
Remove the crusts.
Dip the slices in melted butter.
Assemble and bake
Arrange the slices in a small bread or square cake tin in even layers, alternating with layers of stoned raisins.
When the mold is full, pour over it a mixture made of one pint of milk, the yolks of two eggs, and two tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Use only as much mixture as the bread will absorb.
Bake in a moderate oven for twenty to thirty minutes.
Turn the pudding onto a flat dish and serve with a plain pudding sauce.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stale bread (in the method)
- Forms the structure that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding together.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that soaks into the bread and gives the pudding its moisture.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the soaked bread into a sliceable custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown lightly in the oven.
- Butter (in the method)
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour into the bread slices.
The step that matters
Use only as much mixture as the bread will absorb. If too much liquid is poured in, the bread cannot soak it up and the custard can pool at the bottom, leaving a soggy, uneven pudding. Stopping when the bread is saturated keeps the texture set and even.
“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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