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 ↓
Cottage 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the milk and egg, and mix well.
Gradually stir in the flour and baking powder until combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a cake pan and bake until golden.
Serve hot with a liquid sauce, optionally topped with mashed strawberries mixed with sugar.
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
- Butter
- Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and gives a rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps browning, and creaming it with butter traps air.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the crumb soft.
- Egg
- Adds structure and binds the batter while helping it set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the pudding as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Gradually stir in the flour and baking powder until combined. Stirring only until the flour is just combined keeps gluten development low, so the pudding stays light and tender instead of tough.
“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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