Name: Batter Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint milk (preferably fresh); 4 eggs; 4 tablespoons flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1 pint milk (preferably fresh)
4 eggs
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.
Slowly add the milk to avoid lumps.
Beat the eggs well and add them to the mixture.

Cook and serve

Pour the batter into a well-floured cloth.
Boil for 45 minutes.
Serve with sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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: Beaten eggs add structure and help the pudding set as it cooks.
Flour: Flour gives the batter body and structure as it cooks.
Baking powder: Baking powder releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.
Milk: Milk supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the pudding moisture.