Name: Bird's Nest Pudding
Ingredients: one quart of milk; eight tablespoonfuls of flour; eight eggs

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bird's Nest Pudding

Ingredients

one quart of milk
eight tablespoonfuls of flour
eight eggs

Directions

Prepare the apples

Par and core the apples, then place them in a deep buttered dish.
Fill the center of each apple with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

Bake

Put the dish in the oven and bake until nearly done.
Pour the batter (made of one quart of milk, eight tablespoonfuls of flour, and eight eggs) over the apples.
Finish baking.

Serve

Serve with wine sauce or sugar and cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories

27 gProtein

14 gFat

108 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs: Set the batter into a custard that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Milk: Provides the liquid base that the eggs set into a soft, custard-like texture.
Flour: Thickens the batter and gives the pudding body and structure.
Apples (in the method): Add moisture and fruity sweetness that soften during baking.
Butter (in the method): Adds fat for richness and helps the filling taste full and smooth.

The step that matters

Finish baking after pouring the batter. Eggs set through gentle heat. Baking too hot can curdle the custard and make it grainy, while baking too long dries it out and makes it rubbery.

“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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Bird's Nest Pudding