Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Dundee Haggis
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Stir the skimmed and strained gravy into the soaked oatmeal.
Season with salt and pepper.
Cook in a double boiler for 1 hour.
Add the finishing ingredients
Add the milk in which the bread crumbs have been soaked.
Cook for another 30 minutes, stirring often.
Turn the mixture into a bowl to cool completely.
Beat in the melted butter, chopped meat, and beaten eggs until well mixed.
Steam and serve
Pour into a buttered mold and boil or steam for 1.5 hours.
Turn out and serve hot.
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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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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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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
- Oatmeal
- Forms the bulk and body of the pudding as it swells and thickens with cooking.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when cooled and turned out of the mold.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up liquid and add tenderness, giving the mixture a softer, lighter texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the oatmeal mixture creamy as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the finished pudding.
The step that matters
Cool completely before adding the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to a very hot mixture can scramble them unevenly. Cooling the mixture first lets the eggs blend smoothly and set evenly when steamed.
“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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