Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Soak the bread crumbs in hot milk until soft.
Add molasses, chopped fruit or raisins, spices, butter, salt, baking soda, and flour. Mix well and pour into a suitable pot.
Cook and serve
Boil or steam for three hours.
Serve with sweet sauce.
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.
-
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Soak up the hot milk to form the soft body of the pudding.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, treacly flavour.
- All-purpose flour
- Helps bind the batter so the pudding holds together when cooked.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the texture and aid rising.
- Chopped fruit or raisins
- Add pockets of moisture and sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Boil or steam for three hours. Long, gentle moist heat is needed to set the starch and bread into a tender, cohesive pudding. Keeping the water at a steady simmer avoids a gummy or watery centre and prevents the pot from running dry.
“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.
More bread pudding recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Molasses Cookies96 recipes
Molasses Cake90 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes