Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream 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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.
Make the batter
In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the egg yolks, sour cream, sweet cream, baking soda, and lemon extract to the butter mixture.
Gradually mix in enough flour to form a stiff batter.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until set.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds fat and tenderness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it sweetens the pudding and helps create a tender texture.
- Sour cream
- Its acidity adds moisture and tang and reacts with the baking soda.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that helps the batter rise.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the batter sets into a firm, cake-like pudding.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only while stiff, so folding gently keeps the batter light; stirring vigorously deflates them and leaves a denser pudding.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, cream, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, 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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