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Dessert

Whortleberry Pudding

A pudding made from milk, eggs, flour, and whortleberries, cooked in a cloth over boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓

Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  2. Stir the mixture well until fully combined.

  3. Gently fold in the whortleberries.

Boil and serve

  1. Flour a cloth and place the mixture in the center.

  2. Tie the cloth tightly and boil for 2.5 hours.

  3. Serve with wine sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a stiff batter that holds its shape.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and keeps the pudding moist.
Whortleberries
Add fruit flavor and juicy pockets throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth tightly. A loose cloth lets water seep into the pudding while it boils, making it soggy and loose. A snug wrap keeps the batter compact so it cooks into a firm, sliceable pudding.

“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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