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Dessert

Brown Bread Pudding

A pudding made from brown bread crumbs, suet, sugar, currants, nutmeg, cream, brandy, and eggs, boiled for two 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: 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 ↓

Brown Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine bread crumbs, suet, sugar, currants, grated nutmeg, cream, and brandy in a bowl.

  2. Beat in the eggs until well mixed.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold or cloth.

  2. Boil for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with port wine or cinnamon sauce.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry brown bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a darker, caramelised colour.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit through the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours. The pudding must be sealed in its mold or cloth and kept at a steady boil with enough water, or it can dry out or become dense and uneven. Gentle, sustained heat lets the eggs and crumbs set through to the centre.

Swap the currant

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

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

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