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Dessert

Boiled Bread Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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

Make 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 one tablespoon of cold water.

  4. Stir in the spices, salt, raisins, and butter (or finely chopped suet).

  5. Finally, add the beaten eggs and mix well.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil in a bag or mold for two 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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
Absorb the milk and molasses to form the moist, dense body of the pudding.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color and a rich, moist texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm during boiling.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the pudding and deepen its color.
Butter or suet
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.

The step that matters

Boil in a bag or mold for two hours. The pudding must be sealed tightly and kept at a steady boil with enough water so it cooks through evenly and does not turn soggy or dry. Boiling holds a constant temperature that sets the eggs and starch gently.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, molasses, raisin, milk, egg, butter, cinnamon. 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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