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 ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine milk, egg, butter, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a stiff batter.
Fold in the tart fruit.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased steaming dish.
Steam for 1 hour.
Serve with your choice of rich 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 + buttertop 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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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).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with the baking soda to create lift.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavour.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
- Tart fruit
- Adds moisture and a sharp, acidic contrast to the sweet pudding.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Flour must be incorporated until the batter is stiff but still smooth. Too much flour at once makes lumps and a dense pudding, while too thin a batter lets the fruit sink and the pudding turn heavy and wet.
“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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