Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
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 custard
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the butter and 1 cup of sugar together until creamy.
Add the beaten yolks of the eggs and mix well.
In a separate bowl, soak the bread crumbs in the milk, then add to the mixture.
Pour into a pudding dish, filling it no more than two-thirds full.
Bake and top
Bake until the custard is set.
Spread the jelly or jam over the top.
Make a meringue with the beaten egg whites and remaining ½ cup of sugar, then spread it over the jelly.
Return to the oven until the meringue begins to color.
Serve
Serve with cold 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.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together11,363 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together22,584 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and whites form the meringue topping.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the milk and give the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that, with the eggs, sets into a custard.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the meringue.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Jelly or jam
- Adds fruity sweetness and a moist layer between custard and meringue.
The step that matters
Bake until the custard is set. Egg proteins set as they heat. Underbaked custard stays runny and won't hold its shape, while overbaking makes it curdle and weep.
“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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