Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Pour the boiled milk over the grated bread and let it soak.
Stir in the sugar and butter until well combined.
Allow the mixture to cool, then beat in the eggs.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Absorbs the milk and forms the soft, starchy body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Moistens the bread and provides liquid that the eggs set within.
- Eggs
- Coagulate during baking to bind the pudding and give it a set, custard-like structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the surface.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture before beating in the eggs. If the milk mixture is still hot, it can scramble the eggs instead of blending smoothly. Cooling first keeps the eggs smooth so they set evenly and give the pudding an even texture.
“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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