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 ↓
Almond Sance
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the milk in a double boiler over the stove until boiling.
Stir in the flour that has been mixed with a little cold milk.
Boil rapidly until thickened, stirring constantly.
Add the almondine and place in the outer boiler.
Cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
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).
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
- Rich milk
- Forms the liquid base of the pudding and sets into a creamy custard.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the pudding body.
- Almondine
- Adds almond flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Boil rapidly until thickened, stirring constantly. Flour must be stirred continuously while the milk boils, or it clumps and leaves lumps. Starch granules swell and thicken the liquid only when heated and dispersed evenly.
“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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