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Dessert

Bread and Butter Pudding

A baked dessert made from sliced bread, butter, preserves, eggs, sugar, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Bread and Butter Pudding

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 Butter Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into pieces about 2 inches square.

  2. Butter the bread and spread with preserves or marmalade.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and enough milk to cover the bread.

  2. Pour the mixture over the bread.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the reserved egg white and sweeten it, then spread on top of the pudding before serving.

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.

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.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the structure that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, tender body.
Milk
Moistens the bread and forms the liquid base of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
Preserves or marmalade
Adds sweetness, acidity and fruity aroma between the bread layers.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture over the bread. The bread needs time to soak up the custard before baking. Dry patches stay bready and do not set evenly, so the bread should be fully moistened first.

“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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