Why it works: Milk and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard base
Boil 1 pint of milk.
Mix sugar and flour, then wet with cold milk to form a smooth paste.
Stir the paste into the boiling milk and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add butter and mix well, then set aside to cool.
Bake and serve
Half an hour before serving, beat the yolks of the eggs until light and thick.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and dry.
Mix the yolks with the thickened milk and gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered shallow pudding dish.
Place the dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 minutes.
Serve immediately with sauce a la crème.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together15,317 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together76,993 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Yolks thicken the custard and whites, whipped stiff, lighten the mixture so it rises and sets airy.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the milk into a smooth custard that holds the soufflé structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, setting with heat and starch.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the whipped whites hold their shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the custard and greases the dish to prevent sticking.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped stiff, so fold gently to keep the bubbles. Stirring vigorously deflates the mixture and the dish will bake flat and dense.
“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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