Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Steamed Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix sweet milk, sour milk, cornmeal, flour, salt, melted butter, and baking soda.
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Steam and serve
Place the mold in a steamer over cold water.
Steam for 2 hours without removing the cover.
Serve with sweetened cream.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the main body of the pudding, giving it a dense, tender crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds structure, helping the batter hold together when steamed.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, helping the pudding rise and softening the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, lightening the batter.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat, contributing richness and a moist texture.
- Sweet milk
- Provides liquid that hydrates the cornmeal and flour and adds sweetness and richness.
The step that matters
Steam for 2 hours without removing the cover. Lifting the lid lets steam escape and the temperature drop, which can stall the rise from the baking soda and leave the pudding dense and uneven. Keeping the steam steady cooks the batter evenly through.
“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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