Name: Saucer Puddings
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons powdered sugar; 3 eggs; 1 teacup (about 1 cup) milk; butter (for greasing); preserve of any kind

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 ↓

Saucer Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour and powdered sugar.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and add them to the milk.
Combine the egg mixture with the flour and sugar mixture.

Bake and fill

Butter three saucers well and fill them halfway with the batter.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.
Once cool enough, remove the puddings from the saucers.
Cut each pudding in half and spread a thin layer of preserves between the halves.
Close the puddings and serve with cream.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

Eggs: Provide structure and richness, setting the batter into a tender pudding as they cook.
Flour: Provides structure, thickening the batter so the puddings hold their shape when baked.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness, helping the batter bake into a tender, custardy texture.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the fine batter blend smoothly.

“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.