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Dessert

Common Batter Pudding

A boiled pudding made from eggs, milk, flour, and salt, cooked in a cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Common Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat four eggs thoroughly.

  2. Mix the beaten eggs with half a pint of milk and pass the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Add the mixture by degrees to half a pound of flour.

  4. When the batter is perfectly smooth, thin it with another half pint of milk.

  5. If liquid is added gradually, stir and beat each portion as it is poured into the flour.

  6. Whisk a portion of egg whites to froth and stir into the batter just before putting it into the cloth.

Cook the pudding

  1. Shake out a wet pudding cloth and flour it well.

  2. Pour the batter into the cloth.

  3. Leave the cloth at room temperature to swell.

  4. Tie the cloth securely.

  5. Place the tied cloth immediately into plenty of fast-boiling water.

  6. Boil for an hour and ten minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with wine sauce, hot compote of fruit, or raspberry vinegar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 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 Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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 with heat to bind the batter and give the pudding its structure.
Flour
Forms the starch base that thickens and holds the pudding together.
Milk
Thins the batter and adds moisture to the finished pudding.
Egg whites
Whisked to froth, they trap air that lightens the pudding.

The step that matters

Place the tied cloth immediately into plenty of fast-boiling water. A vigorous boil sets the outside of the batter quickly, so the pudding holds its shape. Using plenty of water keeps the temperature from dropping when the cloth goes in, which helps the pudding cook evenly.

“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.

More batter pudding recipes

Boiled 71Baked 53Apple 30Steamed 30Fruit 19Meat 9 See all 241 →

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