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 ↓
Cottage Pudding
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, rub together the butter and sugar.
Make the batter
Beat in the egg yolks, then add the milk and baking soda.
Mix in the salt and the beaten egg whites alternately with the flour.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a buttered mold.
Bake until golden, then turn out onto a dish.
Cut into slices and serve with vanilla 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding's crumb together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and the beaten whites trap air that lifts the batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps brown the crust while softening the texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that makes the pudding rise.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a soft, even batter.
The step that matters
Folding the beaten egg whites into the flour. Beaten whites hold air that gives the pudding its lift. Mixing gently and alternating with the flour keeps that air in, while vigorous stirring deflates the batter and yields a dense pudding.
“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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