Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.
Prepare
Grate the stale loaf into crumbs.
Pour boiling milk over the crumbs and let it stand for 1 hour.
Beat the mixture to a pulp.
Bake
Add the beaten eggs, butter, powdered sugar, nutmeg, brandy, and lemon peel; mix well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) 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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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,311 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stale loaf
- Forms the bulk of the pudding and soaks up the milk and custard.
- Eggs
- Set the mixture as they bake, giving the pudding its structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, making the texture tender and moist.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly in the oven.
- Milk
- Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the custard base.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Egg proteins coagulate as the pudding heats, so underbaking leaves it loose and overbaking makes it dry and grainy. Bake until the centre just firms.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg, brandy. 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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