Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Flour Puddino
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Gradually stir 1½ pints of sifted flour into 1 quart of milk to avoid lumps.
Beat 7 eggs and add them to the mixture along with 2 tablespoons of melted butter and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Grate in ½ nutmeg and add ½ pound of raisins if desired.
Cook and serve
If baking, pour the mixture into a greased dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1¼ hours.
If boiling, pour the mixture into a bag, filling it no more than two‑thirds full, and boil for 2 hours.
Turn the bag over after 8 or 9 minutes of boiling to ensure even cooking.
Serve immediately with a rich 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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 starchy structure that sets the pudding as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during cooking to give a firm, custard-like body.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and richness to the batter.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the milk gradually. Adding flour slowly while stirring lets each particle hydrate separately, preventing lumps that are hard to remove once the batter is cooked.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, butter, nutmeg):
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, butter, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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