Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Baked Bread Pudding
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Combine bread cubes and milk in a large bowl.
Let the mixture soak for 10 minutes.
Make the custard
Whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in another bowl.
Stir the egg mixture into the soaked bread until well combined.
Fold in the raisins if using.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until set and golden on top.
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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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,287 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
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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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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
- Stale bread
- Absorbs the milk and custard, giving the pudding its soft, sliceable body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that soaks the bread and sets with the eggs into a custard.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the bread and milk into a firm, sliceable pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as the pudding bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Eggs set as they heat, so pulling the pudding out once the center is just firm keeps it creamy; overbaking makes the custard grainy and dry.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits about as well
- Pearfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, cinnamon. 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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