Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Boil the milk and pour it over the breadcrumbs and sugar.
Add the beaten egg yolks when the mixture cools, along with the flavouring.
Layer and bake
Place a layer of preserves or fruit at the bottom of a pie dish.
Pour the mixture over the fruit and bake for 30 to 45 minutes.
Top and finish
Remove from the oven, add another layer of fruit or preserves, and top with the whipped egg whites mixed with sugar and flavouring.
Return to the oven to lightly brown the 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.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + passion fruittop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together37 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + passion fruittop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together144 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Breadcrumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the milk to create a soft body.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it into a custard, while the whites lighten the topping.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the breadcrumbs and forms the custard with the eggs.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the topping brown lightly in the oven.
- Preserves or fruit
- Add sharp fruit flavour and moisture between the custard layers.
The step that matters
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Eggs set into a custard when heated gently. Overbaking causes the egg proteins to tighten and weep liquid, leaving the pudding grainy and watery, so check it as it firms.
Swap the passion fruit
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Passion fruitthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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