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 ↓
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).
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, mix the sweet milk, flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve
Serve warm with hot 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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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the leavening.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to produce rising gas.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release carbon dioxide, lifting the batter.
The step that matters
Mixing the batter until smooth. Cream of tartar and baking soda begin reacting as soon as they are wet, so the batter should be mixed and baked promptly to keep the gas that makes it rise. Overmixing can toughen the flour's gluten and make the pudding dense.
“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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