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 ↓
Plum Pudding with Bread Crumbs
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the bread in the milk and rub it through a colander.
In a bowl, mix the soaked bread with eggs, cinnamon, and sugar.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.
Stir in nutmeg, butter, cloves, allspice, and mixed currants and raisins.
Steam the mixture in baking powder cans for 3 hours.
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.
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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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 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
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, butter):
- Clovethe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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