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 ↓
White Pot
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, beat together the flour, cornmeal, molasses, and egg.
Cook
Stir the mixture into the scalded milk.
Cook over gentle heat for one hour, stirring occasionally.
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 + flourtop 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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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens as it cooks into the pudding.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid and gives the pudding body as its starch cooks.
- Cornmeal
- Adds thickening and a slightly grainy texture to the pudding.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, deep color, and a rich caramel-like flavor.
- Egg
- Helps bind the mixture and adds richness as it sets with the starch.
The step that matters
Cook over gentle heat, stirring occasionally. Low heat and regular stirring keep the starch thickening evenly and stop the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan. The egg can also curdle or turn grainy if the mixture gets too hot.
“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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