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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Combine the dry bread crumbs, sweet milk, baking soda, molasses, raisins, melted butter, lemon juice, spices, and egg in a bowl.
Mix well and pour the mixture into a buttered dish.
Steam and serve
Steam for 1.5 hours.
Serve with hard sauce.
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 + 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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dry bread crumbs
- Form the body of the pudding by soaking up the liquid and holding its shape.
- Sweet milk
- Moistens the crumbs so they soften and blend into a tender mixture.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and sets as it cooks, giving the pudding a firm texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses and lemon juice to release gas, lightening the pudding.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender crumb.
The step that matters
Steam for 1.5 hours. Steam heat is gentle and even, so the egg sets the pudding through without curdling or leaving it wet in the centre. Holding a steady, even heat for the full time gives a uniformly cooked result.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, molasses, raisin, butter, egg):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, molasses, raisin, butter, egg. 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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