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 ↓
Cottage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the egg and mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add to the mixture.
Stir in the cream of tartar, flour, and salt until combined.
Steam and serve
Pour the batter into a greased mold and steam for 1 hour.
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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to give the pudding a tender, rich crumb.
- Egg
- Adds structure and moisture to the batter and helps bind it.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the pudding.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding's shape as it sets.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add to the mixture. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acid in the batter. Undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots or 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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