Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Dumplings and Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Dip a thick cloth bag in hot water and wring it slightly.
Dredge the inside of the bag thickly with flour.
Tie the bag firmly, allowing room for it to swell.
Drop the bag into a kettle of boiling water with a small plate at the bottom.
Cover the pot tightly and maintain a steady boil.
When done, dip the bag in cold water and turn it out just before serving.
Alternatively, butter a tin pudding-mold or earthen bowl, fill it with pudding, and cover tightly.
Drop it into boiling water and boil steadily for the required time.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
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