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 ↓
Minute Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix the flour with a little milk to create a thickening.
Once the milk boils, stir in the thickening until smooth.
Beat the egg and stir it into the mixture, avoiding boiling again.
Serve
Pour the pudding into a dish and serve with sweet sauce or butter and syrup.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + saucetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells with heat, giving the pudding body.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps set the pudding once it is combined with the hot mixture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a smooth pudding.
The step that matters
Adding the egg without boiling again. Egg proteins begin to set around 160°F (71°C) and can scramble or curdle if the mixture boils after the egg goes in. Stirring the beaten egg into the pudding off the boil keeps it smooth.
“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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