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 ↓
Woodford Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add to the mixture.
Stir in the flour and raspberry jam until combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake slowly until set.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, cream the egg yolks, sugar, and butter together.
Thin the mixture with boiling water to your desired consistency.
Place the bowl in a vessel of hot water to keep warm.
Finish and serve
Whip the egg whites and use them to top the pudding before serving.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raspberrytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,014 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Provide structure and richness, setting the batter as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together once baked.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.
- Raspberry jam
- Adds sweetness, fruit flavour and moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add to the mixture. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour milk to release carbon dioxide bubbles. Combining them fully and adding the mixture promptly keeps those bubbles in the batter, so the pudding rises and turns light rather than dense.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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