Name: Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint stale bread crumbs; ½ cup sugar; 1 quart milk; ½ teaspoon salt; 3 eggs; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the custard

Soak the bread crumbs in milk.
Beat the eggs, then add sugar, salt, butter, and spice.
Stir the egg mixture into the soaked bread and milk.

Bake and serve

Pour into a baking dish and bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
If desired, add 1 square of melted chocolate.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Stale bread crumbs: Soak up the milk and egg mixture, giving the pudding its body and soft structure.
Eggs: Set during baking to bind the pudding into a custard-like texture.
Milk: Provides the liquid that soaks the bread and forms the custard with the eggs.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Butter: Adds fat, contributing richness and a tender crumb.