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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the grated bread crumbs, eggs, sugar, nutmeg or cinnamon, and enough milk to make a very thin mixture.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.
Bake for about 30 minutes until set.
Top and brown
Beat the egg white to stiff peaks and gradually add the powdered sugar.
Spread the meringue over the top of the pudding and return it to the oven for a moment to brown.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grated bread crumbs
- Form the body of the pudding, soaking up the milk and egg to set into a soft texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it into a custard as it bakes.
- Milk
- Moistens the bread crumbs and carries the eggs so the pudding stays tender.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Return the meringue to the oven briefly. Meringue can go from golden to scorched in seconds under high heat. Watching it closely lets the sugars brown while the inside stays soft and marshmallowy.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, sugar, milk, butter):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Parsleyfits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, sugar, milk, butter. 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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