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 ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding base
Combine milk, water, bread crumbs, molasses, sugar, salt, spices, raisins, and butter in a pot.
Heat on the stove until thoroughly scalded.
Stir in the beaten eggs.
Bake
Transfer to an earthen dish and cover.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 4 to 5 hours.
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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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 + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding structure and a firm body.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the liquid and form the bulk and soft body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and richness that softens the crumbs and sets with the eggs.
- Molasses
- Adds dark color and deep, slightly bitter sweetness with moisture.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs after scalding. Adding eggs to very hot liquid is what lets them thicken the custard gently; the mixture should be hot but not so hot that the eggs scramble before they are evenly dispersed.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, molasses, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Applefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, molasses, sugar, butter, 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.
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