Skip to main content
Dessert

Strawberry Fluff

A steamed strawberry pudding served with a butter and powdered sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Strawberry Fluff

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the sweet milk, flour, and baking powder; mix well.

  3. Fold in the fresh crushed strawberries.

  4. Pour the mixture into pudding molds and steam for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, beat the butter and powdered sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the boiling water and lightly crushed strawberries; mix well.

  3. Serve the pudding cold or hot with the sauce.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the pudding a light, fluffy crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding so it holds its shape after steaming.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and stay light.
Fresh strawberries
Add moisture and fruity flavour to the pudding and its sauce.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into pudding molds and steam for 30 minutes. Steam heat must set the batter gently and evenly; if the molds are filled too full or the water stops boiling, the pudding can rise unevenly or turn heavy and wet inside.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes