Why it works: Milk and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,386 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Pork Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix sour milk, molasses, finely chopped pork, and baking soda until stiff.
Transfer the mixture to a steaming dish.
Steam and serve
Steam for 2 hours.
Serve hot with 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 + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + porktop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together825 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the pudding.
- Finely chopped pork
- Provides the meaty body and richness that make up the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas that leavens the pudding.
The step that matters
Mixing the batter until stiff. Baking soda reacts with the sour milk as soon as they meet, so the batter should be mixed well and transferred to the dish without delay to keep the gas trapped for rising.
“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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