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Dessert

Old-fashioned Bread Pudding

A baked loaf of bread soaked in milk, sugar, molasses, eggs, raisins, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the bread custard

  1. Slice the bread and pour enough milk over it to cover.

  2. Add the sugar, molasses, and beaten eggs. Mix well.

  3. Stir in the raisins and spices.

  4. Add salt if desired.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a 2 to 3-quart dish and fill it with milk.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 5 hours.

  3. After 4 hours, place the dish in a pan of hot water for the remaining time.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Baker's bread
Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up the milk and holding its shape as it sets.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, binding the bread and milk into a tender, sliceable pudding.
Milk
Soaks the bread and provides the liquid that gives the pudding its moist, soft texture.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor that browns slightly during baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown at the surface as it bakes.
Raisins
Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Place the dish in a pan of hot water after 4 hours. A water bath moderates the heat reaching the custard, so the eggs set gently without curdling or drying out over the long bake.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, molasses, egg, raisin, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, molasses, egg, raisin, butter. 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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