Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Cherry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add enough milk or water to form a dough.
Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick.
Fill and wrap
Butter a large bowl and line it with the dough, leaving enough to fold over the top.
Fill the bowl with stoned cherries and sprinkle with sugar.
Gather the dough over the top and sprinkle lightly with flour.
Cover with a linen cloth and tie securely with string.
Cook and serve
Place in a pot of boiling water and cook for 1.5 hours.
Serve with sweet sauce.
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.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the dough that wraps and holds the cherries together while cooking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas as it heats, helping the dough rise and turn light.
- Stoned cherries
- Provide the fruit filling and moisture that softens the surrounding dough as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the cherries and helps balance their tartness.
The step that matters
Securing the cloth around the bowl. If the cloth is not tied tightly, water can seep into the bowl during boiling and make the pudding soggy and diluted. A snug seal keeps the steam and filling contained so the dough cooks through 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.
More cherry pudding recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.