Name: Arrowroot Pudding
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 4 teaspoons arrowroot; 3 eggs; 1 egg-sized piece of butter

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 ↓

Arrowroot Pudding

Ingredients

1 quart milk
4 teaspoons arrowroot
3 eggs
1 egg-sized piece of butter

Directions

Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Dissolve the arrowroot in a small amount of cold milk, then stir it into the boiling milk.
Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add them to the mixture, stirring well.
Add the butter and mix until fully incorporated.
Serve with 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.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together817 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Arrowroot + buttertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together610 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).