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 ↓
Bread and Butter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the bread
Remove the crusts from the stale bread.
Butter thin slices of stale bread.
Layer the bread in a pudding dish, alternating with layers of stoned raisins.
Make the custard and bake
In a bowl, mix the eggs, brown sugar, salt, and milk.
Pour the mixture over the layered bread and raisins.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.
Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over each layer of bread.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard into a soft, sliceable structure as they cook.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that soaks into the bread and forms the custard.
- Stale bread
- Absorbs the custard and gives the pudding its body.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bread brown lightly in the oven.
- Stoned raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture between the bread layers.
The step that matters
Bake at a moderate, steady oven temperature. Eggs set gently as the custard heats. If the oven is too hot or the pudding is overbaked, the eggs can curdle and turn grainy and watery.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Lemonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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