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 ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.
Beat the egg yolks until light and stir into the soaked crumbs.
Add the melted butter and baking soda dissolved in warm water.
Fold in the egg whites gently.
Bake and serve
Bake in a well‑greased pudding dish, covered, for 30 minutes.
Uncover and brown delicately before serving.
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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Milk + buttertop 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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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and form the soft body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Soaks the crumbs and supplies moisture for a tender custard-like interior.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the batter and help it set into a creamy texture when baked.
- Egg whites
- Folded in whole-airily to lighten the batter and help it rise.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lighten the batter and aid browning in the oven.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites gently. Egg whites trap air that gives the pudding lift. Stirring vigorously deflates that foam, leaving a denser, heavier pudding.
“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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