Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the custard
Trim the crust from the bread and break it into small pieces.
Soak the bread in milk for about 1 hour.
Beat the yolks of the eggs and sugar into the soaked bread.
Bake and finish
Place the mixture in a pan of water and bake.
Once baked, stir in the jelly.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and spread on top.
Bake quickly until light brown.
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 + 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 + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Bread
- Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the milk to become tender.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and set the custard; whites whip into a stiff froth for the topping.
- Milk
- Softens the bread and provides the liquid that the eggs set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the topping brown.
- Jelly
- Adds sweetness, fruity flavour and a glossy layer when stirred in after baking.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and bake quickly. Egg whites need to be beaten until stiff so they hold air and form a light topping. Baking briefly keeps the froth from collapsing or drying out while it lightly browns.
“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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