Name: Bread Pudding, Boiled
Ingredients: 1 lb stale bread; 6 oz raisins or currants, cleaned and picked; 3 oz sugar; 2 cups milk; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; ¼ teaspoon salt

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, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Soak the stale bread in milk until soft.
Beat the eggs and mix with sugar, vanilla, and salt.
Combine the soaked bread with the egg mixture and add raisins or currants.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Cook and serve

Boil for about 1 hour until set.
Let cool slightly before serving.

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.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together782 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Stale bread: Soaks up milk and egg, giving the pudding its body when set.
Eggs: Set on heating to bind the pudding into a firm, sliceable custard.
Milk: Soaks the bread and supplies the liquid that the egg sets within.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a tender, moist crumb.
Raisins or currants: Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for about 1 hour until set. Egg proteins set gradually when heated; too little heat or time leaves the pudding loose and wet in the centre, while overcooking makes it tough and dry. Checking for a firm centre tells you it is done.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, milk, egg, vanilla):

Figfits better
Peachfits better
Apricotfits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, milk, egg, 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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Bread Pudding, Boiled