Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift the flour and measure it.
Add the salt to the flour.
Separate the eggs; add the yolks, unbeaten, to the flour.
Mix in a little of the milk to form a smooth paste.
Gradually add the rest of the milk and mix well.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently stir into the batter.
Bake and serve
If the roast is very fatty, pour off some fat before adding the pudding.
Pour the batter into a roasting pan 45 minutes before the roast is done.
Serve hot with roast beef.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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 structure that sets the batter as it bakes and rises.
- Eggs
- Whites beaten to a froth add lift, and yolks enrich the batter and help it set.
- Milk
- Makes the batter pourable and provides moisture that turns to steam for rising.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into a very hot pan with fat. The batter must go into hot fat so it sizzles on contact and begins to rise immediately; a cold pan gives a flat, dense pudding. The record does not state this, so treat it as general practice rather than a recorded instruction.
“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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