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 gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the base
Soak the bread crumbs in milk for 1 hour.
Squeeze the soaked bread crumbs to a pulp.
Mix the pulp with the remaining milk.
Add sugar, raisins, melted butter, and egg yolks; mix well.
Bake and serve
Beat the egg whites to a froth and fold into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes.
Serve with wine sauce, hot or cold, according to taste.
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
- Form the body of the pudding and absorb the milk to become soft and custard-like.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help bind the pudding as it sets in the oven.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a froth, they add air and lightness to the baked pudding.
- Milk
- Softens the bread and provides the liquid that turns into a set custard.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a tender texture and flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites beaten to a froth trap air that gives lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently with a spatula until just combined.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, butter, egg. 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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