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 ↓
Brown-bread Pudding, a LA Gotha
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix the brown bread crumbs, powdered sugar, egg yolks, whipped cream, grated lemon rind, ground cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Grease a mold with butter and sprinkle with brown bread crumbs.
Assemble and bake
Spread a spoonful of the mixture at the bottom of the mold, layer with cherries, and repeat until the mold is filled.
Place the mold on a baking sheet and bake for about 1 hour.
Serve
Once done, turn the pudding out onto a dish and pour cherry sauce around the base before serving.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
What each ingredient does
- Brown bread crumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the custard-like batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and, when whipped whites are folded in, lighten and set the pudding.
- Whipped cream
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the crumb tender.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the batter.
- Morello cherries
- Provide tart fruit flavor and moisture through the layers.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites beaten until stiff trap air that gives lift. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving a dense pudding instead of a light one.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg, cream, cinnamon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, cream, cinnamon, 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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