Name: A Good Baked Bread Pudding
Ingredients: one ounce of butter; three ounces of sugar; two ounces of candied orange-rind; a pint of new milk; six ounces; three quarters of a pint; five eggs; three eggs beaten to a firm froth; three large tablespoonsful of sifted sugar; 1 pint; 5 yolks; 3 whites; 3 whites of eggs; 3 tablespoonsful

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,696 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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

Bread crumbs (in the method): Soak up the milk and set the body of the pudding.
Eggs: Bind the custard and help it set as it bakes.
Milk: Soaks the bread and forms the custard base for the pudding.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the beaten whites form a stable topping.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that softens the crumb.

The step that matters

Topping the cooled custard with beaten whites. Pouring the topping onto a hot custard can cause the whites to deflate or weep. Beating the whites to a firm froth and adding sugar helps them hold their shape and bake to a light, set layer.

Swap the orange

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49

A Good Baked Bread Pudding