Why it works: Butter and bread 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the egg yolks, bread crumbs, milk, lemon juice, and lemon rind; stir well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gently fold the powdered sugar into the egg whites.
Bake and serve
Pour the bread mixture into a baking dish and spread the egg white mixture on top.
Bake until set and golden brown.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 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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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks set the custard and egg whites whip into a light meringue topping.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and egg, forming the soft body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the bread soaks up and that the eggs set in.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps brown the topping.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until soft peaks form. Under-beaten whites stay runny and won't hold up the topping, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and can separate. Folding gently preserves the air that gives the meringue its lift.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, bread, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, bread, milk. 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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