Name: Quick Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 4 slices of bread; ½ cup figs or raisins or pineapple, diced; 1 quart milk; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons butter, for greasing

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 ↓

Quick Bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut the bread into 2-inch squares.
Grease a baking dish with butter.
Layer the bread squares with figs, raisins, or pineapple in the dish.

Make and bake

In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix with the milk and sugar.
Pour the milk mixture over the layered bread.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

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.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set the custard so the pudding holds together rather than turning soupy.
Bread: Soaks up the milk mixture and forms the soft, tender body of the pudding.
Milk: Forms the liquid custard base that the bread absorbs and the eggs set.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Figs or raisins or pineapple: Adds fruit sweetness and moisture scattered through the bread layers.