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 ↓
Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat 1 quart of milk in a double boiler, reserving enough to wet 7 tablespoons of flour.
Beat 3 eggs with the milk and 7 tablespoons of flour.
Pour the egg mixture into the boiling milk.
Cook and serve
Add ¼ teaspoon salt and 1 cup of berries if desired, along with 1 additional tablespoon of flour.
Boil for 2 hours without interruption.
Serve hot with lemon sauce.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Set and bind the batter, giving the pudding its structure as they cook.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and egg mixture, giving the pudding body as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs and flour cook into a soft pudding.
The step that matters
Boil for 2 hours without interruption. Eggs and flour must cook through and thicken fully; stopping or letting the heat drop can leave the pudding loose or underset.
“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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