Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the egg yolks thoroughly.
Stir in the flour and slowly add the milk.
Beat the egg whites to a froth and fold them into the mixture.
Cook
Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold with a tight cover, making sure the mold is not full as the pudding will swell.
Boil for 2 hours, keeping the water boiling throughout the cooking time.
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten to a froth, lighten it and help it rise and set.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that turns the flour and eggs into a pourable batter and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only when beaten to a froth, and folding gently preserves that air. Stirring them in hard deflates the foam, leaving a denser pudding that swells less during cooking.
“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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