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
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 custard
Boil the milk with the cinnamon sticks until infused, then strain and let cool completely.
Measure out ¼ pound of grated stale bread.
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Once the milk is cold, stir in the eggs, bread, and sugar alternately.
Add the grated lemon peel and rose water if using.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and grate nutmeg over the top.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, then let cool before serving.
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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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, binding the bread and milk into a sliceable pudding.
- Stale bread
- Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the milk and egg mixture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the bread absorbs and the eggs set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the savory-tasting egg and milk base.
The step that matters
Cool the milk completely before adding the eggs. Hot milk can start cooking the beaten eggs early, causing scrambled or curdled specks instead of a smooth custard. Cooling it first lets the eggs blend in evenly and set gently in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, cinnamon, egg, sugar, rose, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, cinnamon, egg, sugar, rose, nutmeg. 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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