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 ↓
Cottage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
In another bowl, combine the milk, melted butter, and eggs.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Flavor with lemon to taste.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 1 hour.
Serve warm with cream or sauce.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the crumb as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to help it rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Mix the wet and dry ingredients. Mixing just until combined keeps gluten development limited, so the pudding stays tender. Overmixing makes it tough, and the leavening gas is released best when the batter is combined and baked promptly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, butter, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, butter, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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