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).
In a large bowl, mix the sugar, sweet milk, melted butter, and egg.
In a separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar, baking soda, and sifted flour.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve warm with 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
- Provides the main structure that sets the crumb as the batter bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to help it rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.
The step that matters
Stirring the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Adding the dry ingredients gradually and stirring only until smooth keeps the batter from being overmixed. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cake tough and dense. Stop once the batter is smooth.
“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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