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 ↓
Home Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat together the eggs, butter, and sugar until well combined.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and add to the mixture.
Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and stir it in.
Steam and serve
Steam for 80 minutes.
For added fruit, steam for 1 hour.
Serve with your choice of 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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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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Milk + flourtop 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
- Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure of the pudding.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that reacts with baking soda to help the pudding rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas for rising.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and stir it in.. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the cream of tartar; undissolved clumps can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.
“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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