Name: Small Fruit Puddings
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 2 eggs; flour (enough to thicken); 1 teaspoon baking powder; fruit (your choice, in layers); sugar (for serving); cream (for serving)

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Small Fruit Puddings

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 batter

In a bowl, combine milk, eggs, and enough flour to create a thick batter.
Stir in the baking powder.

Assemble and cook

Layer the batter and fruit in custard cups.
Place the cups in a steamer and steam for 1 hour, or set them in a large pan of hot water in the oven at 350°F (175°C).
Serve hot with sugar and cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Set the batter into a firm, custard-like structure as they cook.
Flour: Thickens the milk and egg mixture so it holds its shape as a pudding.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking, helping the pudding rise and turn lighter in texture.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the batter and adds moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Thickening the batter before layering. If the batter is too thin, it will not hold its shape around the fruit and may collapse or sink. Enough flour gives a thick batter that sets as it cooks.

“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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Small Fruit Puddings