Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Assemble
Layer sliced buttered bread in a pudding dish.
Add a layer of raisins or fruits, then another layer of bread, repeating until the dish is filled, finishing with a layer of bread on top.
In a bowl, mix sugar, egg yolks, milk, and vanilla extract, then pour the mixture over the layered bread.
Bake and top
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.
Beat egg whites until stiff, then stir in sugar.
Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding and brown lightly.
Serve with sauce.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together782 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Stale buttered bread
- Forms the structure that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding together.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set, giving a tender, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that soaks the bread and sets with the eggs into custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the meringue topping become stiff and glossy.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a meringue that forms a light topping and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat egg whites until stiff, then stir in sugar. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks for a stable meringue; underbeaten whites weep and collapse, and overbeaten whites turn grainy and dry.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla. 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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