Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream Pudding
Ingredients
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.
In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the sour cream, sweet cream, baking soda, and lemon extract to the mixture.
Gradually add flour until the batter is as stiff as pound cake.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until set.
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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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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Eggs
- Whites beaten to stiffness trap air, lightening the batter and helping it rise and set.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Creams with butter to aid aeration and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Sour cream
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the batter rise and adds moisture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the batter into a stiff, cake-like crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of sour cream to produce gas that leavens the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the whites and loses the air that lightens the batter. Fold gently with a spatula, cutting through and turning the mixture, so the pudding stays light and rises evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, cream, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, cream, flour. 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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