Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Cottage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine buttermilk, sugar, and enough soda to balance the acidity.
Stir in Graham flour until the mixture is stiff.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake until golden.
Serve hot with fruit or lemon sauce.
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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Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Buttermilk
- Its acidity gives tenderness and a light, tangy flavour to the cake.
- Soda
- Neutralises the buttermilk's acidity and reacts with it to help the cake rise.
- Graham flour
- Forms the structure of the batter, setting it into a stiff, cake-like crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Adding the soda to the buttermilk. Soda must be balanced against the buttermilk's acidity. Too little leaves the batter sour and dense, while too much leaves a soapy, bitter taste and an uneven rise.
“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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