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Dessert

Boiled Batter Pudding

A boiled pudding made from eggs, butter, milk, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Boiled Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a basin, combine the flour with enough milk to moisten it, and rub out any lumps with a spoon.

  2. Pour in the remaining milk and stir in the melted butter.

  3. Beat the mixture well, then add the eggs and a pinch of salt until the batter is smooth.

Boil and serve

  1. Transfer the batter to a well-buttered basin, tie it down tightly, and place it in boiling water.

  2. Gently move the basin for a few minutes to prevent the flour from settling, and boil for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  3. Alternatively, you can boil it in a floured cloth that has been wetted in hot water for slightly less time.

  4. Serve immediately with sweet sauce, wine sauce, stewed fruit, or jam.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and set during boiling to give the pudding its firm body.
Flour
Forms the starch structure that thickens and holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the pudding a tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the crumb and carries flavour.

The step that matters

Moving the basin while it boils. Flour batter is heavier than water and settles toward the bottom, so gentle movement for the first few minutes keeps it evenly mixed and prevents a dense, uneven base.

“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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