Why it works: Milk and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the eggs thoroughly in a bowl.
Add the milk and salt, then stir in the flour slowly.
Beat the batter until smooth and thin enough to pour.
Grease a large dripping pan with roast beef drippings.
Bake
Hang the roast in the oven or place a wire broiler over the dripping pan.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes.
For extra flavor, cover the top with whortleberries before 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.
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.
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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and help the batter set and rise as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the pudding its body and shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid so the batter can steam and puff in the hot pan.
- Roast beef drippings
- Heat-conducting fat that sears the batter edges and promotes browning and crisping.
The step that matters
Heat the pan with drippings before pouring the batter. The batter must hit a very hot, fat-coated pan so it starts cooking and steaming immediately, which lets it puff up. A cool pan or thin batter produces a flat, dense pudding.
“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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