Name: Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 6 slices buttered bread, cut into dice; 1 quart milk; 3 eggs; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup currants; a little nutmeg

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 (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the diced buttered bread in a baking dish.

Make and bake the pudding

In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, molasses, currants, and nutmeg.
Pour the custard mixture over the bread.
Bake until golden brown.

Serve

Serve with your choice of sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set the custard so the pudding firms up as it bakes.
Milk: Forms the liquid custard that soaks into the bread and keeps it moist.
Bread: Provides the structure that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding together.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Currants: Add pockets of chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, molasses, nutmeg):

Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, molasses, nutmeg. 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.