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
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Mix the sugar and flour, then add enough cold milk to make a smooth paste.
Stir the paste into the boiling milk and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the butter and mix well, then set the mixture aside to cool.
Beat the egg yolks until light and thick, then mix them with the cooled milk mixture.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them in.
Bake
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.
Make the sauce and serve
Rub the butter in a warm bowl until thick.
Gradually beat in the sugar, then slowly add the cream.
Flavor with vanilla and almond extracts or syrup.
Serve the pudding with the sauce immediately after baking.
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
- Egg yolks thicken the custard and whites, beaten stiff and folded in, lighten the pudding as it bakes.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens and bakes into the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the sauce its body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat for a tender texture and a smooth sauce.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that lightens the pudding; deflating them by stirring vigorously loses that lift. Fold gently so the pudding rises and sets with a light texture.
“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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