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 ↓
Cottage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix sweet milk, melted butter, sugar, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually add flour to the mixture and stir until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its starch and proteins set during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts and lightens the crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and helps give a tender texture.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes richness and flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the surface brown during baking.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar and leavening.
The step that matters
Adding the flour. Stirring only until the flour is combined keeps gluten development limited, so the pudding stays tender rather than tough. Leavening starts reacting as soon as the wet and dry ingredients meet, so the batter should go into the dish promptly.
“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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