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 gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Soak the bread scraps in cold water until soft.
Boil the milk in a saucepan. Add a piece of butter the size of a nut to the milk to prevent burning.
Squeeze out the water from the soaked bread and return it to the basin.
Pour the boiling milk over the bread and let it soak until soft.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until combined.
Stone the raisins or wash and dry the currants, checking for stones.
Chop the suet finely after removing the skin.
Make the pudding and bake
Mash the soaked bread with a fork until smooth.
Mix in the raisins or currants, chopped suet, eggs, and sugar until well combined.
Grease a 1½ pint pie dish or tin and pour in the mixture.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set.
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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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 + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,111 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread scraps
- Form the main body of the pudding and absorb the milk to become soft and moist.
- Milk
- Soaks into the bread and, with the eggs, gives the pudding its moist, custardy texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses flavour deepens the pudding.
- Raisins or currants
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavour throughout the pudding.
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it bakes.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling milk over the bread and let it soak until soft. The bread must absorb the hot milk fully so it breaks down into a smooth base; unsoaked lumps stay dry and do not blend with the eggs when mashed and mixed.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar. 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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