Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: one quart of milk; three pint dish; one pint bread crumbs soaked in one quart milk; three tablespoons of baker's choco- late dissolved in water; one cup sugar; one cup of bread crumbs; one cup of sugar; three cups of sweet milk; one square of baker's chocolate; a tablespoonful of lemon juice in a cup; nine apples of medium size; half tumbler of water; six eggs; one part seeded raisins; two parts good tart apples; one quart milk; three eggs; one whole egg; three others; salt

Why it works: Milk and bread 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 ↓

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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set the custard and give the pudding its structure as they cook.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving a soft, creamy texture.
Apples: Provide the tender fruit base and tart flavour under the custard.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and stewed apples, balancing the apples' tartness.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven until set. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Underbaking leaves a runny custard, while overbaking makes it curdled and weeping, so watch for a just-set centre.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, sugar, chocolate, apple, egg, raisin):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Pearfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, sugar, chocolate, apple, egg, raisin. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

How We Cook in Tennessee