Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Combine the dry bread crumbs and sour milk in a bowl.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk mixture.
Add the eggs, melted butter, dark brown sugar, raisins, and cinnamon, then mix well and pour into a greased baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake for 30 minutes.
Serve with hard sauce.
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.
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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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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
- Dry bread crumbs
- Form the base of the pudding and soak up the liquid to set a soft, tender texture.
- Sour milk
- Moistens the crumbs and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
- Dark brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and molasses flavour, and helps brown the top.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat for a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react with and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the acidic sour milk before adding the other ingredients spreads the reaction evenly, so the pudding rises uniformly instead of having dense or soapy pockets.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, butter, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Applefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, butter, sugar, 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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