Name: Boiled Curd Pudding
Ingredients: 2 gallons milk; 6 eggs; a little cream; 2 tablespoons orange-flower water; ½ nutmeg, grated; 3 tablespoons flour; 3 tablespoons bread crumbs; ½ pound currants; ½ pound raisins

Why it works: Orange and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,746 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Curd Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Drain the curd from the milk through a sieve.
Mix the curd with the eggs, cream, orange-flower water, grated nutmeg, flour, bread crumbs, currants, and raisins.

Cook

Place the mixture in a thick, well-floured cloth.
Boil for 1 hour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,746 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the curd mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Flour: Thickens the mixture and gives the pudding body as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help the pudding hold its shape.
Currants: Add chewy fruit pieces and sweetness throughout the pudding.
Raisins: Add chewy fruit pieces and sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Wrapping the mixture in the floured cloth. A thick, well-floured cloth keeps the pudding from sticking and helps it hold a neat shape while boiling. If the cloth is thin or not floured, the pudding can tear or stick to the fabric.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, cream, orange, nutmeg, flour, bread):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cream, orange, nutmeg, flour, bread. 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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Boiled Curd Pudding