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 ↓
Panade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bread
Break the soft part of the stale loaf into pieces.
Cover with cold water and let sit for about 1 hour.
Mash the bread well.
Cook and serve
Set the mash on the fire.
Add salt, butter, and sugar to taste.
Simmer for about 1 hour.
Mix in the beaten egg yolks and cream or milk.
Combine well and serve.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stale bread
- Forms the body of the pudding once soaked, mashed and simmered.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture and add richness as they set with heat.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture and softness, giving a smoother, looser texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silkier mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the savory bread flavor.
The step that matters
Mix in the beaten egg yolks and cream or milk. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so adding them to a very hot mash can scramble them into lumps. Stir them in steadily and combine well so the pudding sets smooth.
“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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