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 ↓
Plain 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.
Prepare the base
Break the stale bread into pieces and place in a bowl.
Pour the boiling milk over the bread and add the butter.
Cover the dish tightly and let it cool.
Once cool, mash the mixture until fine.
Make the batter
Stir in the cinnamon, grated nutmeg, sugar, and dissolved baking soda.
Beat the eggs until light and add them to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pudding dish.
Bake and serve
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve warm with hard 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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 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).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
What each ingredient does
- Stale bread
- Provides the body of the pudding, soaking up milk to form a soft, custard-like crumb.
- Milk
- Softens the bread and, with the eggs, forms the custard that sets the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the pudding and give it a tender, custardy structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as the pudding bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidity in the mixture to help it rise and lighten slightly.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Let the bread cool before mashing and adding eggs. Hot milk would scramble the eggs instead of letting them blend smoothly into the custard. Cooling also lets the bread fully absorb the milk, so the mixture mashes evenly and sets into a uniform, smooth pudding.
“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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