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 ↓
Pudding Under Roasted Beef
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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the beef on sticks in a baking pan to allow juices to drip below.
Mix the milk, beaten eggs, flour, and salt in a bowl until smooth.
Pour the pudding mixture into the pan under the beef.
Roast and serve
Roast the beef, allowing the drippings to fall onto the pudding for the last 45 minutes.
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).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set the pudding into a firm, sliceable custard as it bakes.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter so the pudding holds its shape rather than running thin.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the pudding a tender, moist crumb.
The step that matters
Pouring the batter under the beef. The batter must be smooth and fully mixed before it goes into the pan, since lumps of flour stay dry and the pudding may bake unevenly. Position under the beef matters too, so drippings fall into the batter as it sets.
“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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