Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Minute Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Boil 1 quart of milk in a pot.
Add ¼ teaspoon of salt.
In a separate bowl, mix flour with a little water to make a smooth paste.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the boiling milk, stirring continuously until thickened.
Serve
Serve with sweet 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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + saucetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a pudding.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells when heated, giving the pudding body.
The step that matters
Adding the flour paste to the boiling milk. Flour thickens best when it is smooth and well dispersed. Adding it gradually while stirring constantly keeps lumps from forming, because flour clumps when it hits hot liquid in one mass.
“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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