Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the custard base
Cut the rind of ½ lemon very thinly.
Boil the rind in the milk to flavor it.
Strain the milk onto the bread crumbs in a bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon sugar and 2 ounces stoned and chopped raisins.
Beat the egg well and mix it with the other ingredients, adding a little grated nutmeg.
Let the mixture stand for 1 hour.
Bake
Pour it into a buttered pie dish, sprinkle a little sugar on top, and bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 hours.
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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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Form the body of the pudding, soaking up the milk and egg to set into a soft crumb.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set into a custard when baked.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the crumbs and forms the custard.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake gently at 300°F (150°C). Egg proteins set into a smooth custard at moderate heat; high heat can curdle the egg and toughen the texture, leaving the pudding grainy or watery.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, egg, milk, brandy, sugar, raisin, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, milk, brandy, sugar, raisin, 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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