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 and Butter 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a baking dish or mold.
Assemble
Layer the bottom with thin slices of buttered bread.
Sprinkle currants or chopped raisins over the bread.
In a bowl, mix milk, egg yolks, sugar, lemon essence, and nutmeg.
Pour some of the batter over the bread and currants.
Add another layer of bread, butter, and currants, then pour more batter on top.
Repeat until the dish is nearly full, finishing with batter on top.
Bake and serve
Bake in the oven until set and golden, about 30-40 minutes.
Serve warm with wine sauce.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Thinly sliced bread
- Forms the layers that soak up the custard and give the pudding its body.
- Egg yolks
- Set the milk mixture into a custard as it bakes, giving a rich, tender texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard base that soaks into the bread and sets during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bread brown on its surface as it bakes.
- Currants
- Add pockets of sweet, chewy fruit between the bread layers.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and contributes to browning on the top.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Egg yolks set at moderate heat, so pulling the pudding out once the centre is just firm keeps the custard smooth rather than grainy or watery.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, milk, egg, sugar, lemon, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, milk, egg, sugar, lemon, 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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