Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Walnut Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the sugar and butter until creamy.
Add the sweet milk and baking powder, then gradually incorporate enough flour to form a stiff batter.
Fold in the English currants or walnuts if using.
Steam and make the sauce
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold and steam for 45 minutes.
For the sauce, combine 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, and 1 tablespoon flour in a saucepan.
Add about 1 cup of boiling water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
Optionally, add a few spoons of cream and flavor with wine to taste.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb to the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the stiff batter that gives the pudding its body.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lightens the batter as it steams.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps make the batter creamy.
The step that matters
Gradually incorporating the flour. Adding flour slowly lets you judge when the batter is stiff enough without overworking it. Too much flour at once makes a dense, dry pudding, while too little leaves it slack and unable to hold its shape in the mold.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour. 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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