Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Steamed Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Melt the chocolate and mix it with the sugar, milk, flour, melted butter, and baking powder.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 2 hours.
Serve
Serve cool with plenty of whipped cream, sweetened and stiffened with egg white.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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 structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, lightening the pudding's texture.
- Chocolate
- Supplies the main flavour and colour of the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat, giving the pudding richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the pudding.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and forms a batter.
The step that matters
Steam for 2 hours. Steaming must stay gentle and continuous so the pudding cooks through evenly. If the water boils dry or the steam drops, the centre may stay raw or the texture may turn dense.
“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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