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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
Make the batter
Combine the milk, flour, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
Fold in the beaten egg yolks, then gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour the batter into a buttered dish.
Bake and serve
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve immediately with a 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 + 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).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 whites trap air for lift, while the yolks add richness and help set the structure.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the baked pudding its body and structure.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and keeps the pudding moist as it bakes.
The step that matters
Fold in the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold trapped air that gives the pudding lift. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a denser, flatter result.
“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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