Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. 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).
Break or chip the bread into fine crumbs.
Make and bake the pudding
In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, sugar, milk, eggs, and flavoring or raisins.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes until set and lightly browned.
Top and finish
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the top.
Return to the oven for a few minutes until the egg whites are lightly browned.
Top with jelly or stewed fruit before serving.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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 + vanillatop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together497 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Bread crumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and absorb the milk and eggs to set a soft body.
- Eggs
- Bind the custard so it sets as it bakes, and the whites add a light meringue topping.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the bread soaks up and that the eggs set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Egg whites only hold air and form a stable, lightly browned meringue when beaten until stiff. Underbeaten whites collapse and weep on the pudding.
“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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