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 ↓
Rhubarb, or Pie-plant 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Chop the rhubarb finely and place it in a pudding dish.
Sprinkle sugar over the rhubarb.
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, mix sour milk, eggs, butter, and baking soda.
Add enough flour to create a thick batter, similar to cake batter.
Spread the batter over the rhubarb.
Bake until done, about 30-40 minutes.
Serve
Invert onto a platter so the rhubarb is on top.
Serve with additional sugar and cream.
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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Rhubarb + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together670 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Rhubarb
- Its tartness contrasts with the sugar and the soft, sweet batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the rhubarb and helps draw out its juices as it bakes.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the batter rises and turns tender.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the batter a tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the thick batter together while it bakes.
The step that matters
Inverting the pudding. The pudding must cool briefly so the set batter holds its shape; turning it out too early can make it collapse, while waiting too long may cause it to stick to the dish.
Swap the rhubarb
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg, butter, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Rhubarbthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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