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 gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, milk, melted butter, and egg.
Add flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda; mix until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve with hard or soft 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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Butter + flourtop 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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the pudding as its proteins set when baked.
- Egg
- Adds structure and helps bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat that gives the pudding a tender, rich crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that makes the pudding rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides the acid that reacts with baking soda, producing gas for lift.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda and cream of tartar. Baking soda and cream of tartar begin releasing gas as soon as they meet moisture. Mixing them in until smooth and getting the batter into the pan and oven promptly keeps that gas in the batter, so the pudding rises well.
“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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