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
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
Soak the bread scraps in cold water.
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Add the butter to the milk to prevent burning.
Squeeze out the water from the soaked bread.
Return the bread to the basin.
Pour the boiling milk over the bread and let it soak until soft.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar.
Prepare the raisins or currants by stoning or washing and drying them.
Make the pudding
Mash the soaked bread with a fork until smooth.
Mix in the raisins or currants, eggs, and sugar until well combined.
Grease a pie dish or tin that holds 2.5 pints and pour in the mixture.
Bake
Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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 scraps
- Absorb the hot milk and form the soft body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Softens the bread and forms the custard that sets as the pudding bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable custard when baked.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture while contributing a molasses flavour.
- Raisins or currants
- Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling milk over the bread and let it soak until soft. The bread must fully absorb the milk so the mash is smooth. Hot milk softens starch quickly, and under-soaked bread leaves lumps and dry patches in the set pudding.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar, 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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