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Dessert

Bread Pudding

A steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, raisins, molasses, butter, egg, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Bread Pudding

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, raisins, molasses, melted butter, and egg.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to the mixture.

  3. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased mold and steam for 2 hours.

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.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the body of the pudding and soak up the liquid to form a tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter once combined with the liquids.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, along with a rich flavor.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in boiling water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and mixed in evenly so it reacts consistently with the acidic molasses. Uneven distribution leaves dense patches or pockets of soapy flavor.

“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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