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Dessert

Batter Pudding

A simple boiled pudding made from flour, milk, egg, and salt, cooked in a butter‑greased cup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Prepare the batter

  1. Fill a saucepan halfway with warm water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. In a bowl, combine the flour and a few grains of salt.

  4. Crack the egg into the bowl and mix the egg with the flour.

  5. Gradually add the milk while stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon.

  6. Let the batter stand for 30 minutes.

  7. Grease a cup well with butter.

  8. Stir the batter again.

  9. Pour the batter into the greased cup.

Cook and serve

  1. Wring out a small cloth in boiling water.

  2. Flour the cloth well.

  3. Tie the cloth over the top of the cup with string.

  4. Once the water is boiling, place the cup in the saucepan.

  5. Let the cup boil for 30 minutes.

  6. Remove the cloth from the cup.

  7. Serve the pudding as desired.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Flour
Forms the batter's structure as it sets around the trapped steam.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set firm when cooked.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the flour into a pourable batter.

The step that matters

Adding the milk gradually while stirring. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour fully hydrated and smooth, preventing lumps that would leave an uneven, floury texture in the finished 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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