Name: Bread and Currant Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 3 eggs; 3 tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 cup currants; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; Grated rind of 1 lemon; Thin slices of stale bread; Butter for spreading

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Bread and Currant Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line a small, shallow baking dish with a layer of buttered stale bread slices.
Mix half the sugar with cinnamon and lemon rind, then sprinkle over the bread, reserving some for the next layer.
Sprinkle half the currants over the bread.
Beat the egg yolks, add the remaining sugar, then mix in the milk and pour half over the bread.
Add another layer of bread, sugar, cinnamon, and currants, then pour the remaining milk on top.
Bake until brown, about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually add powdered sugar, and heap on top.
Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve hot or cold.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, cinnamon, lemon, bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.