Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓
Cottage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Butter a basin carefully.
Cut the bread and butter into slices and remove the crust.
Assemble and soak
Place a layer of raisins at the bottom of the basin, then add the bread and butter, sugar, and nutmeg.
Beat the eggs into the milk, sweeten and flavor to taste.
Pour the milk mixture over the bread and butter and let it soak for 30 minutes.
Steam
Cover the basin with a plate and steam for 1 hour.
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.
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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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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up the custard as it sets.
- Eggs
- Set the milk into a custard that holds the pudding together.
- Milk
- Soaks into the bread and forms the liquid base of the custard.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chew throughout the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the custard taste rounded.
The step that matters
Pour the milk mixture over the bread and let it soak. The bread needs time to absorb the custard evenly before steaming. Eggs in the milk set as they heat, so unsoaked dry bread can leave pockets of plain custard or a dense, uneven texture.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, nutmeg, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Lemonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, nutmeg, egg, milk. 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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