Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Economical Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bread
Soak the stale bread in cold water for 1-2 hours or overnight.
Drain the liquid and press the bread to remove moisture.
Mix and cook
In a bowl, combine the bread, sugar, sultanas or raisins, mixed spice, and beaten egg. Mix thoroughly and transfer to a greased bag.
Cook for 40 minutes.
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.
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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).
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Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,111 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,556 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
- Stale bread
- Provides the body of the pudding, absorbing water and holding its shape once combined.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the pudding brown during cooking.
- Sultanas or raisins
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness and fruitiness throughout the pudding.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the mixture together and helps it set as it cooks.
The step that matters
Drain and press the bread. Bread that stays too wet will make the pudding soggy and loose, because excess water prevents the mixture from setting firmly as it cooks.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg. 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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