Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Sponge Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Mix flour, sugar, and butter together.
Add milk and cook until smooth and thick.
Beat the egg yolks well and stir them into the milk mixture.
Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into cups or a shallow dish and place it in a water bath.
Bake until set.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Flour + milktop 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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Flour + eggtop 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
- Yolks enrich and thicken the custard; beaten whites lighten the pudding and help it rise.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the butter and sugar base and gives the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks with the flour into a smooth, thick custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and softens its texture.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Beaten whites trap air that makes the pudding light. Stirring or mixing vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a dense, heavy result, so fold slowly with a spatula until just combined.
“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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