Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Miss Jennie Chase
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In a saucepan, combine one pint of milk, two tablespoons of corn starch, and one even tablespoon of sugar mixed well in a little extra milk.
Heat until the milk scalds.
Stir in a little salt, butter the size of a hickory-nut, and the corn starch.
Let it boil for three minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from the stove and flavor with vanilla.
Mold and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold previously wet with cold water and set aside to cool.
Serve with sugar and cream, flavored.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 77,875 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a pudding.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, setting the pudding into a soft, sliceable body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Stirring while the mixture boils. Corn starch can settle and scorch on the bottom of the pan or form lumps if not kept moving. Constant stirring during the boil keeps the starch evenly dispersed so it thickens smoothly.
“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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