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 ↓
Rich Bread and Butter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Flavor 1 pint of new milk with lemon rind, bitter almonds, or cinnamon, and simmer.
Strain the milk and mix it with ¼ pint of rich cream.
Sweeten with 4 ounces of sugar while hot, then stir in 5 beaten eggs.
Add a few grains of coarse sea salt and mix briskly while adding 1 glass of brandy.
In a thickly buttered dish, layer 3 layers of thin bread and butter, then add 4 ounces of currants and 1½ ounces of finely shredded candied peel.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, sugar, egg, brandy, bread, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sugar, egg, brandy, bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Brandy Peaches68 recipes