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 ↓
Cheeby Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs well.
Add the sweet milk, baking powder, and salt, mixing thoroughly.
Gradually add sifted flour until you achieve a stiff batter.
Gently fold in as many cherries as you can.
Cook and serve
Boil or steam the mixture for 1 hour.
For the sauce, cream together butter and sugar to taste.
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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Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
- Sifted flour
- Forms the body of the batter, giving the pudding its structure as it sets.
- Cherries
- Add moisture, sweetness and fruit flavour throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Gradually add sifted flour until you achieve a stiff batter. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the batter's consistency. Too much flour makes the pudding dense and dry, while too little leaves it too loose to hold its shape and the cherries.
“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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