Bread have a special taste or texture. At one time, all yeast-leavened breads were sourdoughs. Recently there has been a revival of sourdough bread in artisan bakeries. Traditionally, peasant families throughout Europe baked on a fixed schedule, perhaps once a week. The starter was saved from the previous week's dough. The starter was mixed with the new ingredients, the dough was left to rise, and then a piece of it was saved (to be the starter for next week's bread). The rapid expansion of steam produced during baking leavens the bread, which is as simple as it is unpredictable. Steam-leavening is
Bread and butter pudding can be used instead. Sometimes raspberry, strawberry, blackberry or mixed fruit jam, marmalade, or other sweet preserves will be spread upon the bread, along with the butter. Other modern variations include scattering fresh grapes between the layers of bread, melting apples into the egg-milk mixture, and using unusual types of breads — such as brioche — to make it. Lemon or orange peel will add a characteristic flavour. The earliest bread and butter puddings were called "whitepot" and used either bone marrow or butter. Whitepots could also be made using rice instead of bread, giving rise to the rice pudding