Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Puff Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the egg, cream of tartar, and baking soda, mixing well.
Gradually add the flour, beating until smooth.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 1 hour.
Serve with whipped cream.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the pudding rich and tender.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the crumb by interfering with gluten.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set its structure as it cooks.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that reacts with baking soda to help the pudding rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure as its starch sets and gluten forms.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour, beating until smooth. Adding flour gradually helps the batter combine evenly without lumps. Beating too long develops too much gluten, which makes the pudding tough and dense.
“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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