Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon 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
Prepare the custard base
Sweeten the milk with sugar and add a few grains of salt.
Pour the boiling milk over the bread-crumbs and add butter.
Cover with a plate and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Stir in the whisked eggs and flavoring of nutmeg or lemon rind.
Boil and serve
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold or basin that holds 1½ pints.
Tie a paper and cloth tightly over the mold.
Boil the pudding for exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes.
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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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
- Bread-crumbs
- Soak up the hot milk to form the pudding's soft, absorbent body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the crumbs and cooks into a creamy custard.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the milk and balances the savoury richness of the eggs and butter.
The step that matters
Boil the pudding for exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes. Eggs set as they heat, so boiling too briefly leaves the centre wet and loose, while overcooking makes it tough and rubbery. Keeping the mold tightly covered and the water boiling holds steady heat for an even set.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, bread, butter, egg, nutmeg, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, bread, butter, egg, nutmeg, brandy. 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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