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Dessert

New England Bread Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with eggs, milk, bread crumbs, sugar, and spices, topped with jelly and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 979 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

New England Bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pudding

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a three-quart pudding dish, break the eggs and beat until light.

  3. Add salt, sugar, bread crumbs, milk, coconut butter or olive oil, and cinnamon. Mix well.

Bake and top

  1. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the pudding is no longer milky, testing frequently with a knife.

  2. Spread a thick layer of jelly over the top when done.

  3. Beat the egg whites with pulverized sugar to make a meringue and spread it over the jelly.

  4. Return to the oven until the meringue is delicately browned, then remove immediately.

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.

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.

  1. Coconut + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together979 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs set as the custard, giving the pudding its structure and body.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and egg mixture, providing the bulk and tender texture of the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, supplying moisture that the eggs set.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue become glossy and browned.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar to form a light meringue that browns on top.

The step that matters

Removing the meringue from the oven. Meringue sugars brown quickly once heated, so it can scorch if left in too long. Remove it as soon as it is delicately browned to keep it light and sweet.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, bread, milk, coconut, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, bread, milk, coconut, cinnamon. 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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