Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cheese Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Butter a baking dish.
Cover the bottom with grated strong cheese.
Layer sliced bread and grated cheese alternately in the dish.
Make the custard
In a bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, red pepper, and salt.
Pour the custard over the bread and cheese layers.
Bake and serve
Dot with small pieces of butter.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes and serve very hot.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg proteins set as the custard bakes, holding the pudding together.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard that soaks into the bread and sets softly.
- Bread
- Absorbs the custard and gives the pudding its body and structure.
- Strong cheese
- Adds rich flavor and fat, and melts into the layers as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Pour the custard over the bread and cheese layers. The bread needs to soak up the custard evenly before baking. Dry patches stay firm and tasteless, while a soggy base can make the pudding uneven when the egg sets.
“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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