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.
Make the base
Break the buttered bread into pieces, cover with milk, and sweeten to taste.
Add the well-beaten yolks of 3 eggs and the white of 1 egg.
Stir in the raisins.
Cook and finish
Cook on the stovetop until thick.
Cover the top with the beaten whites of 2 eggs, seasoned with a little vanilla.
Cook in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until brown, for just a few minutes.
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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Milk + breadtop 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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Sugar + raisintop 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable body.
- Bread
- Soaks up the milk and eggs, forming the soft, tender body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the bread absorbs and the eggs thicken into custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the eggs and milk.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Cook on the stovetop until thick. Egg proteins thicken the custard as they warm, but excessive heat can curdle or scramble them, so cook gently and stop once it thickens.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, bread, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, bread, 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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