Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Huckleberry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the cream of tartar and baking soda into the flour, then rub in the butter.
Beat the egg until light, then stir in the sugar and milk.
Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour, then fold in the fruit.
Steam for 45 minutes.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the pudding as its starch sets during steaming.
- Cream of tartar
- Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
- Baking soda
- Supplies carbon dioxide with the cream of tartar, lifting the batter as it steams.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
- Huckleberries
- Add fruit flavour, colour and moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour. Adding the wet mixture slowly and folding gently keeps the batter evenly combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the pudding tough, while the leavening needs to stay active to lift the batter.
“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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