Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Soak the bread in the milk for 1 hour.
Mix the sugar, salt, baking powder, flour, and nutmeg together, sifting all through a sieve.
Mash the soaked bread in the milk, stir in the flour mixture, and mix well.
Add the beaten eggs and the cherries (stoned or not, as preferred).
Cook the pudding
To steam, butter a pudding tin, pour in the mixture, allowing space for it to rise, and steam for 2½ hours.
To boil, dip a pudding bag in boiling water, spread it with flour, pour in the mixture, and tie it securely.
Place a tin plate at the bottom of a kettle half full of boiling water, add the pudding, and boil for 4 hours, replenishing water as needed.
Serve
When done, lift the pudding out, plunge it into cold water, remove it immediately, and turn it out onto a platter.
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.
-
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the pudding as it cooks.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk to form a soft, moist body for the pudding.
- Flour
- Provides structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
- Cherries
- Add fruit moisture, sweetness and tartness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Leave space for the pudding to rise. Baking powder releases gas as the batter heats, so a full tin can overflow or give a dense, uneven result. Leaving room lets the pudding expand while it steams.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, flour, milk, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, flour, milk, 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.
More cherry pudding recipes
You might also like
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Brown Bread Pudding47 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.