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Dessert

French Bread Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and eggs, baked in a buttered mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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French Bread Pudding

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 ↓

French Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard base

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in boiled milk flavored with vanilla and sugar.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Add the whole eggs, egg yolks, and beaten egg whites to the mixture.

Poach and serve

  1. Pour into a deep, buttered mold dusted with bread crumbs.

  2. Poach in a bain-marie until set.

  3. Serve with English custard, vanilla sabayon, or fruit 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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

White bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that the pudding sets around.
Milk
Softens the bread and forms the liquid base of the custard.
Whole eggs
Set the pudding into a firm, sliceable texture when gently heated.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, giving a smoother, creamier set.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the pudding rise and hold a softer structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds a little tenderness to the set.

The step that matters

Poach in a bain-marie until set. Eggs set at gentle temperatures, and high heat makes the custard curdle or turn grainy and watery. A water bath keeps the heat even and moderate, so the pudding sets smoothly.

“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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