Name: Steawbeery Cottage Pudding
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 1 cup granulated sugar; 2 large eggs; ½ cup cold water; 1¾ cups all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 3 pints fresh strawberries; ½ cup granulated sugar (for strawberries)

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 ↓

Steawbeery Cottage Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar.
Beat in one egg thoroughly.
Add the cold water, flour sifted with baking powder and salt, and the second egg; beat for three minutes.

Bake and cut

Pour the batter into a buttered dripping pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
Cut into three-inch squares.

Make the strawberries and serve

Wash and hull the strawberries, then place them in a kettle with ½ cup sugar and let them warm until the sugar melts.
Serve the pudding topped with the warm strawberries.

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).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter: Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the pudding as the starches set when baked.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, making the pudding rise and become light.
Fresh strawberries: Provide fruity flavor and moisture for the warm topping.

“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.