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 ↓
Queen 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream together the sugar and butter until light.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
Fold in mace and citron to taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into well-buttered and sugar-dusted moulds.
Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted 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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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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Add structure and richness to the batter as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat and tenderness, and helps the creamed mixture hold air.
- Pastry flour
- Provides the structure that sets the crumb in the baked pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to give the batter lift.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts with the baking soda to leaven the batter and add a slight tang.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps tenderize the crumb.
The step that matters
Alternating the dry ingredients with the milk. Adding the flour mixture in portions, alternating with the liquid, keeps the batter smooth and prevents overmixing, which would toughen the crumb.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, cream. 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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