Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Bread and Butter 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 dish
Cut stale bread into 3-inch slices and spread butter on the slices.
Cut the buttered slices into 3-inch strips and place the strips in a buttered baking dish.
Sprinkle a layer with a few raisins.
Place a second layer of bread strips in the opposite direction.
Repeat layering until the dish is three-quarters full, ending with a top layer of buttered bread.
Make the custard
In a bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, salt, vanilla, and milk to make the custard.
Pour the custard into the dish to nearly fill it.
Let stand for 30 to 60 minutes.
Bake
Bake in a water bath at 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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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Forms the structure, soaking up custard so the pudding sets into a soft, tender body.
- Egg
- Sets the custard as it heats, binding the milk and bread into a sliceable pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base of the custard that the bread absorbs and the egg sets.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the top of the baked pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the top layer brown in the oven.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture between the bread layers.
The step that matters
Bake in a water bath until set. Gentle, indirect heat from the water bath keeps the egg custard from overheating and curdling, so it sets smooth and creamy rather than grainy or rubbery.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg, sugar, vanilla, milk):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, sugar, vanilla, milk. 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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