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 says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the custard base
Soak the bread crumbs in sweet milk for 30 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks with powdered sugar and lemon peel, then stir into the soaked bread crumbs.
Add raisins and pour the mixture into a greased pudding dish.
Bake and top with meringue
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 30 minutes.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding ½ cup of powdered sugar.
Spread the meringue on top of the pudding and return to the oven to brown delicately.
Serve hot or cold, with jelly sauce or whipped cream.
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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and form the soft, tender body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and set the custard; whites whip into the meringue that gives lift and a light top.
- Sweet milk
- Moistens the bread crumbs and forms the custard that sets during baking.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the custard and, dissolved into the whites, stabilizes the meringue.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites under-beaten or greasy from yolk residue will not hold peaks, so the meringue may weep or flatten on top. Keep the bowl and whisk free of yolk and fat, and add sugar gradually so the foam stays stable.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, sugar, raisin, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar, raisin, 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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