Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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 the bread
Cut the bread into thin slices and place them in a dish.
Pour the boiling milk over the bread and let it cool.
Mash the bread once cooled.
Assemble and bake
Layer preserved gooseberries in the bottom of a pudding dish, then add the mashed bread.
Sweeten the good milk to taste and mix in the beaten eggs and rose water.
Pour the mixture over the bread and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Grate nutmeg over the top before serving, if desired.
Alternative method
Alternatively, boil in a shape for 2 hours, using currants and adding brandy.
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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Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together494 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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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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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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 and soaks up the custard as it sets.
- Eggs
- Set the custard, giving the pudding a firm, sliceable structure as it bakes.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that soaks the bread and forms the custard base.
- Preserved gooseberries
- Add tart fruit flavour that contrasts with the sweetened custard.
The step that matters
Mashing the bread after it cools. Bread that is still hot or left in large pieces will soak unevenly, so the mashed layer should be cool and well broken up before the custard is added.
Swap the nutmeg
The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, rose, sugar, currant, brandy):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Allspicefits less well
- Clovefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, rose, sugar, currant, brandy. 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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