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 ↓
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Beat in the egg yolks, then add the milk and salt.
Fold in the beaten egg whites alternately with the flour and baking powder.
Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.
Bake and serve
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Serve warm with a liquid 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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Butter + flourtop 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).
Butter and flour 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
- Egg whites add lift when folded in, and yolks enrich the batter with structure and richness.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the pudding rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the crumb tender.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air bubbles that give the pudding its lift. Folding gently, alternating with the flour, keeps those bubbles from collapsing so the pudding rises well.
“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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