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 ↓
A Good Baked Bread Pudding
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.
Soak the bread
Pour boiling milk over the bread crumbs and butter in a bowl.
Cover and let stand until soaked.
Make the pudding
Stir in sugar, egg yolks, candied orange rind, and nutmeg until well combined.
Let the mixture cool.
Pour it into a baking dish.
Ice and bake
Beat the egg whites until firm.
Mix in the sifted sugar and spread over the pudding.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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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
- Soak up the milk to form the soft body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and set the custard; whites whip into a firm icing that gives structure on top.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the bread and forms the custard base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the beaten whites hold their firm texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the soaked bread.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until firm. Whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks; under-beaten whites will not hold the icing, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy, so the topping may collapse or weep in the oven.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, milk, sugar, egg, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, milk, sugar, egg, nutmeg. 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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