Skip to main content
Dessert

Boiled Bread Pudding

A boiled bread pudding made with bread crumbs, molasses, raisins, milk, eggs, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Boiled Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk for 15 minutes.

  2. Mash the soaked bread crumbs finely.

  3. Add the warmed molasses and the baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of cold water.

  4. Mix in the spices, salt, seeded raisins, and butter (chop suet finely if used).

  5. Finally, add the beaten eggs.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil in a bag or mold for 2 hours.

  2. Serve with hard sauce.

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.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body of the pudding, absorbing the milk and molasses.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, deep flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the texture and darken the crumb.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender texture.

The step that matters

Mashing the soaked bread crumbs finely. Fine, evenly broken crumbs hydrate uniformly and blend smoothly into the batter, so the pudding cooks to an even, tender texture without dry or soggy pockets.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, molasses, milk, egg, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, molasses, milk, egg, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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.

More bread pudding recipes

Apple 145Chocolate 53Brown 51Fruit 44Lemon 37Steamed 29 See all 1,021 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipes