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 ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
Mix the milk, flour, and salt into a smooth batter.
Roast with the beef
Pour off excess fat from the gravy in the dripping pan, leaving just enough to prevent sticking.
Pour the batter into the pan and roast alongside the beef, allowing the dripping to fall onto the pudding.
Baste the meat with the reserved gravy.
Serve
Cut the pudding into squares and serve around the meat.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air and set during baking, giving the pudding its light, puffed structure.
- Flour
- Starch and gluten set as the batter bakes, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that turns to steam in the hot oven, helping the pudding rise and stay moist.
The step that matters
Pouring the batter into the hot fat. A thin layer of hot fat sears the base as the batter goes in, which helps it rise and keeps it from sticking. Too much fat can make the bottom greasy; too little lets it stick.
“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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