Why it works: Bread and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,997 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Queen's Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Cut slices of stale baker's bread into rounds with a cake cutter, removing all crust.
Fry the rounds in sweet lard until light brown.
Dip each round quickly into boiling water to remove excess fat.
Sprinkle both sides thickly with a mixture of powdered sugar and nutmeg.
Pile the rounds on a hot plate.
If desired, heat a glass of wine and add a teaspoonful to each piece after dipping in water and before sugar coating.
Serve hot.
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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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Bread + winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together956 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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Nutmeg + winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,356 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together9,581 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Garlicfits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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