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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Soak the bread crumbs in milk until soft, then measure.
Add the egg yolks and beat until light.
Mix in the sugar, butter, lemon zest, nutmeg, and salt.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until the custard sets.
Make the meringue and finish
Whip the egg whites until stiff, adding 1 tablespoon of sugar for each white.
Spread the meringue on top and bake until light brown.
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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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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Egg + breadtop 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
- Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites whip into the foam for the topping.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the milk and give the custard its soft, bready body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that, with the eggs, bakes into a set custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and a tender texture in the custard.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites trap air only when fully whipped and free of any fat or yolk. Underwhipped or greasy whites will deflate or weep, so the meringue will not hold its peaks or brown evenly on top.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, butter, bread, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, butter, bread, 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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