Name: Steam Pudding
Ingredients: 1 egg; 3 tablespoons water; 3 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons butter (size of a walnut); ½ cup flour; any kind of fruit (for the bottom of the dish)

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steam Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the egg, water, sugar, and butter until light.

Assemble and steam

Place the fruit in the bottom of a pudding dish and cover with the batter.
Steam for 30 minutes.

Serve

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

Egg: Binds the batter and helps give the pudding its light, set structure.
Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to a softer texture in the batter.
Fruit: Adds moisture and fruity flavour to the base of the pudding.