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Dessert

Bread Pudding

A baked dessert made with eggs, bread crumbs, milk, sugar, flour, butter, syrup, water, vanilla, topped with preserves and whipped egg whites.

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

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs lightly, then add the soaked bread crumbs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the milk and combine thoroughly.

  4. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes.

Top and bake

  1. Remove from the oven and spread acid jelly or preserves on top.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then fold in the powdered sugar and spread over the jelly.

  3. Return to the oven and bake until lightly browned.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan, then whisk in the flour and cook until browned.

  2. Gradually add the boiling water and syrup, stirring constantly for 15 minutes.

  3. Finish the sauce by adding the vanilla extract.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind the bread and milk into a set custard; whites whip into a meringue topping.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and give the pudding its body and soft texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a tender custard.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue topping and helps it hold its stiff, glossy structure.
Flour
Cooked with melted butter, it forms a roux that thickens the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the roux that starts the sauce.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites trap air only when fully whipped and free of grease or yolk; under-beaten or greasy whites will collapse and make the meringue topping weep or stay flat.

“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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