Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
A Baked Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bread
Take a stale five-cent loaf of bread; cut off all the crust, and grate or rub the crumb as fine as possible.
Make the custard
Boil a quart of rich milk, and pour it hot over the bread; then stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, and the same quantity of sugar, a glass of wine and brandy mixed, or a glass of rose water.
Or you may omit the liquor and substitute the grated peel of a large lemon.
Add a tablespoonful of raised cinnamon and nutmeg powdered.
Stir the whole very well, cover it, and set it away for half an hour.
Then let it cool.
Beat seven or eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture after it is cold.
Bake and serve
Then butter a deep dish, and bake the pudding an hour.
Serve it to table cool.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Nutmeg | 1 tsp ground (2.2g) | 12 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up the milk to become soft and tender.
- Milk
- Softens the bread and, with the eggs, sets the pudding into a custard.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a softer, more tender texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set on baking, giving the pudding its custard structure.
The step that matters
Stir in the eggs only after the mixture has cooled. Eggs added to very hot liquid can scramble or cook unevenly, so letting the mixture cool first keeps the eggs smooth and lets them blend into a uniform custard.
“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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