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Dessert

Brown Bread Pudding

A pudding made from stale brown bread, currants, suet, sugar, nutmeg, eggs, brandy, and cream, boiled for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Brown Bread Pudding

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Brown Bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine the grated bread, currants, suet, sugar, and nutmeg in a bowl.

  2. Add the eggs, brandy, and cream, and mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a cloth or basin.

  2. Boil for 3 to 4 hours in water.

  3. Serve warm.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale brown bread
Provides the bulk and structure that soaks up the eggs and cream.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pockets throughout the pudding.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the bread softens evenly.

The step that matters

Boil for 3 to 4 hours in water. The pudding must be cooked long and gently enough for the eggs to set through the centre. Water that boils too hard or runs dry can make the outside tough or leave the middle wet.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, nutmeg, egg, brandy, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, nutmeg, egg, brandy, cream. 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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