Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the custard
Soak the bread in the milk for 2 hours.
Mash the soaked bread and milk together with the back of a spoon.
Beat the eggs, sugar, and salt together, then add to the bread and milk mixture.
Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.
Bake and check
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.
Check for doneness by running a knife down the center; it should not look milky.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Stale bread
- Soaks up the milk and forms the soft, custardy body of the pudding.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the bread and sets with the eggs into custard.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown lightly at the surface.
The step that matters
Checking for doneness. Egg custard keeps setting as it cools, and underbaked eggs stay liquid and milky. A knife inserted at the center should come out clean, showing the eggs have set.
“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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