Name: Steamed Fruit Snow-ball Pudding
Ingredients: 1 ¼ cups butter; ½ cup sugar; ¼ cup milk; 1 cup flour; 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder; whites of 3 eggs; 1 cup sugar (for sauce); 2 tablespoons cornstarch (for sauce); 2 cups boiling water (for sauce)

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Steamed Fruit Snow-ball Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.
Add the milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the butter mixture.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, and gently combine.
Fill six small cups with the mixture.
Steam the cups for 30 minutes, ensuring the water remains boiling.
Turn the puddings out onto plates and serve with jelly or jam.
For the sauce, combine 1 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cornstarch in a saucepan.
Gradually stir in 2 cups of boiling water and cook until thickened.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Spice Cake344 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Steamed Fruit Snow-ball Pudding