Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Steamed Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make and fill
In a bowl, mix the egg, sour milk, cream or butter, and baking soda until smooth.
Pour the mixture into deep pie plates or a pudding dish.
Fill with blackberries or other pressed fruits.
Steam and serve
Steam for 1 hour.
Serve with sweetened cream or 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 + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
- Sour milk
- Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
- Blackberries
- Add fruit flavour and juice that moistens the pudding as it steams.
The step that matters
Steam for 1 hour. Steam must be kept steady and the pudding covered so heat sets the egg and the leavening gas stays trapped; lifting the lid or letting the steam drop can leave the pudding dense or sunken.
“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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