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.
Make the pudding
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, milk, sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, and egg yolks.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.
Top and finish
Spread jam or jelly over the top.
Beat the egg whites until frothy and spread over the jam.
Return to the oven and bake until the egg whites are lightly browned.
Let cool before serving.
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 + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 crumbs
- Soak up the milk and egg to form the body of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard so the pudding sets rather than staying liquid.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that bakes into a light, browned topping.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a soft custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the topping brown as it bakes.
- Jam or jelly
- Adds fruity sweetness and a layer between the custard and the meringue.
The step that matters
Bake the pudding until just set. Egg proteins set as they heat; if the custard is overbaked it turns grainy and watery, and the egg white topping can scorch before it browns evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, 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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