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Dessert

Brown Bread Pudding

A pudding made from brown breadcrumbs, butter, milk, sugar, eggs, jam, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Brown Bread Pudding

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Brown Bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, dissolve the sugar and butter in the boiling milk.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the breadcrumbs and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, add the egg yolks and mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread a layer of jam at the bottom of a pie dish.

  2. Pour the breadcrumb mixture over the jam and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Top and finish

  1. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, then add 1 tablespoon sugar and a little flavoring.

  2. Spread the whipped egg whites on top of the pudding and return to the oven to set.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Brown breadcrumbs
Form the body of the pudding by soaking up the hot milk mixture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that soaks the crumbs and sets with the eggs into a custard.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and help set the custard; whipped whites make a light, airy topping.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor under the custard layer.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg white topping.

The step that matters

Let the breadcrumb mixture cool before adding the egg yolks. If the mixture is still very hot, the yolks can scramble instead of blending smoothly, leaving a grainy texture in the custard.

“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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