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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Pour hot milk over bread crumbs and let stand for 30 minutes, covered.
Beat the yolks of the eggs and add to the bread mixture.
Grate in nutmeg, add salt, and sugar to taste; mix well.
Tie the mixture in a linen or muslin sack and boil in water for 30 to 45 minutes.
Finish and serve
Remove from water, place on a plate, and pour melted butter over it.
Add a splash of wine or brandy if desired, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
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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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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the hot milk and form the soft, starchy body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Soaks into the bread crumbs and provides moisture for a tender texture.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the mixture and enrich it, helping it set as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the finished pudding a smooth mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Boiling in the sack. The mixture must be tied firmly in the cloth so it holds its shape while cooking. Boiling for the full 30 to 45 minutes lets the egg yolks set the pudding through, while a loose sack can let water in and make it soggy.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, sugar, butter, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Thymefits less well
- Parsleyfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar, butter, wine. 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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