Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.
Beat the egg and add the milk to it.
Gradually pour the milk mixture into the flour, mixing thoroughly until smooth and light.
Bake and serve
Melt some dripping in a baking tin until hot.
Pour the batter into the hot tin and bake for about 30 minutes.
Cut into squares and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that the set batter holds once baked.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it set and hold its risen shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that turns the batter into a pourable batter that steams and rises.
- Dripping
- Heats in the tin to give a hot fat surface that helps the batter rise and brown.
The step that matters
Pouring the batter into the hot tin. The fat must be very hot before the batter goes in. The sudden heat makes the batter steam and puff up quickly; a cool tin lets it spread flat and stay dense.
“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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