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 ↓
Feather Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
In another bowl, combine the milk, egg, and melted butter.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve warm with sauce.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that lightens the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so the baking soda can react and help it rise.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor in the finished pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Mixing just until smooth keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the pudding dense and tough, and the leavening gas is released as soon as the batter is combined, so it should go into the oven promptly.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, egg, butter, cream):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, egg, butter, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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