Why it works: Coffee and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,202 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix sour milk, beaten eggs, salt, and baking soda.
Gradually add flour until the batter is a little stiffer than for griddle cakes.
Bake and serve
Pour the drippings from the roast beef into a baking pan.
Raise the beef above the batter using long iron pins.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
Serve hot with the meat.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Coffee + beeftop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together213 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Add structure and help the batter rise and set as it bakes.
- Sour milk
- Provides liquid and acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, helping the pudding rise.
- French's white lily flour
- Forms the gluten structure that gives the batter body and lets it puff.
- Drippings from roast beef
- Hot fat that sears the batter's base, promoting browning and crisp, lifted edges.
The step that matters
Heat the drippings before pouring the batter. The batter must hit very hot fat so its base sets quickly and steam drives the rise; cold or weak fat leads to a flat, 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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