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Dessert

Rich Bread and Butter Pudding

A custard-soaked bread pudding made with milk, cream, eggs, currants, candied peel, and flavored with lemon rind, bitter almonds, or cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
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Rich Bread and Butter Pudding

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rich Bread and Butter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Add lemon rind and bitter almonds (or cinnamon) to a pint of new milk.

  2. Simmer the milk for 10–20 minutes until it has a sufficient time for this.

  3. Strain the milk and mix it with a quarter pint of rich cream.

  4. Sweeten the mixture with four ounces of sugar in lumps.

  5. Stir the mixture while still hot into five well-beaten eggs. Add a few grains of salt.

  6. Stir briskly with a spoon as a glass of brandy is added.

Assemble and bake

  1. Prepare a thickly-buttered dish with three layers of thin bread and butter cut from a half-quartern loaf, with four ounces of currants and one and a half ounces of finely shredded candied peel, strewed between and over them.

  2. Pour the egg and milk mixture onto the bread by degrees, letting the bread absorb one portion before adding another.

  3. Allow the pudding to soak for about two hours, then bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

857Calories
29 gProtein
21 gFat
139 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

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

By Eliza Acton. 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.

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.

  1. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the custard and set the pudding when baked.
Bread
Forms the structure and soaks up the custard as it bakes.
Milk
Provides the liquid that forms the custard with the eggs.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, silkier texture to the custard.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Pour the custard in by degrees. Adding the egg and milk mixture gradually lets the bread absorb it evenly; pouring it all at once can leave pooled liquid and a soggy, unevenly set pudding.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, cream, egg, bread, almond, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, cream, egg, bread, almond, cinnamon. 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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