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Bread Pudding, Baked

A baked pudding made from stale bread, currants, sugar, spices, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bread Pudding, Baked

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.

Prepare the bread

  1. Soak the bread in cold water for several hours.

  2. Squeeze out the moisture from the soaked bread.

  3. Beat the bread lumps until smooth.

Make the batter

  1. Add the shredded candied peel, currants, sugar, salt, mixed spice, and egg to the bread mixture.

  2. Rub the dripping into a half tablespoon of flour.

  3. Mix the flour‑dripping mixture with the bread mixture.

  4. Dissolve the dripping in a spoonful of warm milk if preferred.

  5. Stir in the baking powder last.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a shallow baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on thickness.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the liquid and fat.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set as it bakes.
Dripping
Adds fat and richness, keeping the crumb moist and tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to lighten the pudding's texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the bread mixture come together.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking powder last. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, so adding it at the end and baking promptly keeps the rise from fading before the pudding sets.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, milk, egg. 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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