Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Amherst Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sour milk, flour, chopped suet, molasses, salt, and baking soda, and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam
Steam for 4 hours or boil until cooked through.
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of the sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and a slight tang.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long cooking.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and its acidity helps the leavening.
The step that matters
Steam for 4 hours or boil until cooked through. Long, gentle moist heat cooks the batter evenly and sets its structure without drying it out. Too little time or a rapid boil that lets water run low can leave the centre underdone or the pudding dry.
“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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