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Cup Pudding

A steamed milk pudding served in individual cups, topped with jam or fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cup Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix sweet milk, salt, egg, and baking powder in a bowl to form a batter.

Assemble the cups

  1. Butter individual cups by adding 1 tablespoon of butter to each cup.

  2. Add jam or fruit to the cups.

  3. Cover the fruit with the batter.

Steam

  1. Steam for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 light, sliceable structure as they heat.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, lifting the batter so it rises and stays tender.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, tender texture while coating the cups.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the batter.
Jam or fruit
Adds sweetness, moisture, and flavour beneath the batter.

The step that matters

Steam until cooked through. The egg in the batter must heat fully to set. Underdone batter stays wet and collapses, so check the centre is firm before removing the cups.

“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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