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Pumpkin Bread Pudding

I can't believe it is November already, where is the time going.  Halloween passed, and Thanksgiving is coming up pretty soon.  Once you hit Thanksgiving then it's suddenly New Years and you wake up wondering what happened.  My little Ella is already 8 months and standing up.  And i want to find a pause button, things need…

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Why it works: Pumpkin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,744 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep15 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: bread

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Put the bread cubes in a large bowl, drizzle with the melted butter and toss until evenly coated.

  2. Spread the buttered bread cubes in an even layer in a 2-quart baking dish or an 8-inch square pan.

  3. In a bowl, whisk the pumpkin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and cloves until smooth.

  4. Whisk in the heavy cream, whole milk, eggs and egg yolk until fully combined. If using, whisk in the bourbon.

  5. Pour the custard evenly over the bread, pressing gently with a spatula so the cubes soak it up. Let stand 10 minutes.

  6. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until puffed and set in the center. The custard must reach 160°F (71°C) on an instant-read thermometer. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

By delishhh. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pumpkin + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, pumpkin, sugar, egg, cinnamon, ginger):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  3. Cloveabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, pumpkin, sugar, egg, cinnamon, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).