Name: Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 1 quart hot milk; 3 to 4 ounces sugar; 3 eggs; a few drops of vanilla; 1 quart white bread, cut into 1-inch cubes; 2 ounces raisins

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

Stir sugar into hot milk.
Add beaten eggs and vanilla, mixing well.

Assemble and cook

In a bag, combine bread cubes and raisins.
Pour the milk mixture over the bread and raisins.
Cook for 8 minutes.

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.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Vanilla + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together782 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs: Set the custard and bind the pudding into a tender, sliceable structure.
White bread: Soaks up the milk mixture and forms the body of the pudding.
Sugar: Sweetens the milk mixture and adds flavor to the custard.
Hot milk: Provides the liquid that soaks the bread and sets with the eggs.
Raisins: Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.