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Dessert

Whortleberry Pudding

A steamed pudding made with milk, eggs, flour, and whortleberries, served with cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk, eggs, and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  2. Gently fold in the whortleberries until well combined.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a floured cloth and tie it tightly.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding in water for 2.5 hours.

  2. Serve with cream 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.

  1. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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
Bind the batter and help the pudding set firm as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a stiff batter that holds its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter as it cooks.
Whortleberries
Provide the main fruit flavour and juiciness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth. The cloth must be tied tightly so the pudding keeps its shape and water cannot soak into it while boiling.

“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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