Why it works: Coconut and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 411 recipes. Both carry beta-pinene, which smells pine, resin. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake
In a bowl, mix the milk, beaten eggs, bread squares, coconut, nutmeg, and sugar until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until set and golden.
Serve
Serve warm with sauce.
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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Coconut + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together411 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).
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Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard so the pudding holds together rather than staying liquid.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard that soaks into the bread and bakes into a moist texture.
- Bread
- Soaks up the custard and provides the body of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until set and golden. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the centre loose and watery, while overbaking makes the custard dry and grainy. Check that the centre barely wobbles before removing it.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, bread, nutmeg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, bread, nutmeg, 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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