Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Mix flour, eggs, salt, and milk in a bowl until smooth and slightly thicker than pancake batter.
Cook
Place a dish under the meat to catch drippings and heat it until hot and well greased.
Pour the batter into the hot dish with drippings.
Cook until the top is brown and set, then flip to brown both sides.
Bake for 2 hours at 400°F (200°C) to achieve a firm pudding about 1 inch thick.
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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Flour + milktop 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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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that sets the batter into a risen, firm pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it rise and set as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it can puff in the hot fat.
The step that matters
Heat the dish until hot and well greased before pouring in the batter. The batter must hit very hot fat so its surface sets quickly and steam lifts it. A cool or poorly greased dish lets the batter spread and rise poorly.
“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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