Name: Boiled Batter Pudding
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 pint milk; 3 eggs; Butter for greasing; Sugar to taste; Melted butter for serving; Flavoring (wine, rum, vanilla, etc.)

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Boiled Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, beat together the flour and milk until smooth.
Add the beaten yolks and whites of the eggs, mixing well.

Boil and serve

Grease a basin and pour in the batter.
Cover the basin tightly with a damp, floured cloth.
Boil in a pot of water for 1.5 hours.
Serve with melted butter and sugar, flavored as desired.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Rum + vanillatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together728 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Wine + rumtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together230 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour: Thickens the milk and eggs into a batter that sets as it cooks.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the pudding set and hold its shape.
Milk: Provides the liquid that the flour hydrates and the eggs set within.

“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.