Name: Steamed Berry Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint all-purpose flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; Milk (enough to make a thick batter); Butter (for greasing cups); 1 tablespoon batter per cup; Berries (your choice); Maple sauce (for serving)

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 ↓

Steamed Berry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add milk gradually to create a thick batter.

Assemble

Butter cups and place 1 tablespoon of batter in each cup.
Add a layer of berries, then top with more batter.

Steam and serve

Steam the cups for about 1 hour.
Serve with maple sauce.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,078 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the batter as it sets during steaming.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the puddings rise and turn light.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and forms the thick batter, adding moisture and richness.
Berries: Add moisture, tartness, and fruity flavor as they soften in the steam.

“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.