Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Bread 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
Soak the bread in milk and squeeze out the excess.
Mix and bake
Mix the soaked bread, sultanas, chopped almonds, beaten egg, cinnamon, sugar, and softened butter together.
Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar 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
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Soaked in milk, it forms the soft body of the pudding.
- Egg
- Sets when baked, binding the bread and holding the pudding together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.
- Sultanas
- Add sweetness and moist pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Squeezing out the soaked bread. Bread holds a lot of liquid after soaking. Squeezing out the excess keeps the mixture from becoming soggy, so the egg can set properly during baking.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, cinnamon, sugar, butter):
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Walnutfits less well
- Chestnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, cinnamon, sugar, butter. 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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