Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Bread and Jam Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mould
Grease a round tin or basin that holds 1½ pints with sweet dripping or butter.
Spread thin slices of bread with jam, then cut them into 1‑inch by 3‑inch slips.
Place the bread slips lightly in the greased mould, filling it nearly full.
Soak and steam
In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add sugar and milk, mixing well.
Pour the egg mixture into the mould and let it soak for 30 minutes.
Cover the mould with greased paper and place it in a saucepan with boiling water, ensuring the water reaches halfway up the mould.
Steam for 1 hour, then turn out the pudding carefully.
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.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 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
- Forms the structure of the pudding and soaks up the custard as it sets.
- Eggs
- Set when heated, holding the soaked bread together in a tender custard.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the bread and forms the custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the custard.
- Jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavour to the bread layers.
The step that matters
Steaming with water halfway up the mould. Water that is too high can slip into the pudding, and steam that is too fierce can make the custard rough or spongy. Keeping the water at the set level lets the egg custard set gently and evenly.
“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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