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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cover the bread crumbs with milk and add cinnamon, lemon peel, and nutmeg.
Heat gently until the crumbs are well soaked.
Remove the cinnamon and lemon peel, then beat the crumbs and milk together.
Add the beaten eggs, butter, sugar, and currants.
Boil the mixture for one hour.
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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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
- Bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk and absorb the milk to form the pudding body.
- Milk
- Soaks the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a soft, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the spices.
- Currants
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for one hour. Boiling for the full hour lets the egg proteins set the mixture into a firm pudding. Cutting the time short can leave it loose and wet in the middle.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, butter, sugar. 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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