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Dessert

Ladywell Pudding

A baked bread pudding with stewed fruit, butter, eggs, sugar, and spice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ladywell 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 the bread and fruit

  1. Soak the bread pieces in boiling water until soft.

  2. Mix the soaked bread with the stewed fruit.

Make the pudding

  1. In a bowl, beat together the butter, egg yolks, spice, and sugar.

  2. Combine this mixture with the bread and fruit.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  4. While baking, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Spread the beaten egg whites over the pudding and return to the oven to brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Bread + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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
Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whites whipped to stiff peaks give a light, airy topping.
Dry bread
Soaked bread absorbs liquid and forms the soft body of the pudding.
Butter
Fat adds richness and a tender texture to the mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Stewed fruit
Adds moisture and fruit flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the topping stays airy and rises rather than deflating. Any trace of yolk or grease can stop them from whipping properly.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, butter, sugar. 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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