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Dessert

Bread and Butter Pudding

A simple pudding made by layering stale bread with a milk, egg, sugar, butter, and vanilla mixture, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Bread and Butter Pudding

Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Remove the crusts from the bread and cut it into pieces.

  2. Use ½ tablespoon of the butter to grease a baking dish.

  3. Layer one slice of bread in the dish.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk, beaten egg, sugar, salt, and vanilla, then strain it over the bread.

  2. Cut the remaining slice into ⅓ inch strips and layer them on top.

  3. Let it stand for 15 minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

  2. Serve with hard or creamy 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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Bread
Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the custard as it stands and bakes.
Egg
Sets the custard during baking, giving the pudding its structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown lightly at the surface.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives a softer, more rounded flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the bread soak before baking. Standing time lets the bread absorb the custard evenly, so the pudding bakes moist rather than with dry pockets or a watery layer at the bottom.

“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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