Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: one tablespoon gelatine in cold water; two cups milk; one-eighth teaspoon salt; four tablespoons of sugar; one cup jam; three-quarters cup butter; one quart nice ripe berries which are not mashed; a pint of milk sweetened; a cup of white sugar; a square of domestic which has been dipped in boiling water; four eggs; three eggs; one dozen almond macaroons; salt

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 ↓

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).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Yolks thicken the custard, and whipped whites form a light meringue that browns on top.
Milk: Forms the body of the rich custard, which sets as the pudding bakes.
Almond macaroons: Soak up the wine and custard to form soft, spoonable layers.
Jam: Adds sweetness and fruity flavor between the layers.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and helps the whites whip into a stable meringue.

The step that matters

Spread the meringue over the top of the pudding and brown.. Egg whites whipped with sugar trap air and hold their shape only when stiff and not overbeaten. Sugar and proteins brown under heat, so the meringue must be fully spread and watched closely, since it can burn quickly. Underwhipped or deflated meringue weeps or sinks.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, egg):

Pecansfits about as well
Almondthe original
Cocoafits less well
Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

How We Cook in Tennessee