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 ↓
Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a basin set in boiling water, heat the milk, reserving some to wet the flour.
When the milk is scalding hot, stir in the flour until smooth.
Add the butter and sugar, then let the mixture cool slightly.
Beat the yolks of the eggs and add them to the mixture, followed by the beaten egg whites.
Pour the mixture through a flour sieve into a baking dish.
Bake and make the sauce
Place the baking dish in a larger pan filled with boiling water.
Bake for 1 hour.
For the sauce, cream together the powdered sugar and butter.
Add the eggs, beaten separately, and stir well.
Mix in the juice of a lemon or wine.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and butter 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
- Eggs
- Yolks and whites set the custard-like batter, giving it structure and richness as it bakes.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the milk mixture and gives the pudding its body as it sets.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour and eggs set into a tender custard texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the batter.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture through a flour sieve into a baking dish.. Sieving removes lumps of flour or cooked egg so the batter bakes smooth. Lumps form when flour is not fully wet, so the batter should be stirred until smooth first.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, flour, butter, sauce):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, flour, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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