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 Pudding Boiled, with or Without Currants
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
In a large bowl, combine the torn bread and milk. Let it soak for 15 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt.
Assemble and bake
Mix the egg mixture into the soaked bread until well combined.
Fold in the currants if using.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until set and golden on top.
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.
-
Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
-
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Bread + vanillatop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together497 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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
- Soaks up the milk and egg mixture, giving the pudding its body and soft texture.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the custard and giving structure to the pudding.
- Milk
- Soaks into the bread and forms the custard that bakes into the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Eggs set as they heat, so overbaking can make the custard grainy, dry, or curdled. Pull the pudding when the centre is just set and the top is golden.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, egg, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, egg, vanilla. 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.
More bread pudding recipes
You might also like
Vanilla Ice Cream108 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Red Currant Jelly65 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.