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 ↓
Feather Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the egg and sweet milk, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Flavor with nutmeg and pour into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Flour
- Provides the starch structure that sets the pudding's crumb as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set its structure as it cooks.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts and lightens the pudding.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and works with baking soda to help the pudding rise.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps tenderize its texture while creaming with butter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding dry ingredients slowly and stirring until smooth prevents lumps and overmixing. Overworked flour gluten can make the pudding tough, while even distribution keeps the leavening working evenly.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, cream, flour):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, cream, flour. 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.
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