Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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.
Prepare
Soak the bread in milk and squeeze out the excess with a spoon.
Mix all the ingredients together, adding the melted butter.
Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.
Bake
Bake the pudding at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
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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Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,514 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Bread
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up milk and egg to hold its shape.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and sets as it bakes, giving the pudding a custard-like structure.
- Milk
- Moistens the bread so it softens and blends evenly with the other ingredients.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, contributing to a tender texture and browning.
- Sultanas
- Add sweetness and a chewy texture between the soft pieces of bread.
The step that matters
Squeezing out the excess milk from the bread. Leftover liquid makes the mixture wet and loose, so the egg may not set properly and the pudding can turn soggy in the centre. Squeeze the bread until it is moist but not dripping.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, cinnamon, sugar, butter, milk):
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Walnutfits less well
- Chestnutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, cinnamon, sugar, butter, milk. 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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