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 ↓
Snowball Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.
Gradually beat in the sugar.
Add the milk, flour, and baking powder; mix well.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture.
Steam and serve
Grease cups or molds and fill them two-thirds full.
Steam for 30 minutes.
Serve with lemon sauce, foamy sauce, or any fruit 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch structure that sets the pudding as it steams.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and stay light.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds tenderness to the batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff, then folded gently so the air bubbles stay intact. Overmixing deflates them, and the pudding loses the lift that makes it light.
“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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