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 ↓
Blackberry 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs in a large bowl.
Add the milk and melted butter to the eggs and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until smooth.
Mash the blackberries, sweeten to taste, and fold into the batter.
Pour the batter into a pudding dish.
Bake and serve
Bake in the preheated oven until set, about 30-40 minutes.
Serve warm with lemon 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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Flour + sugartop 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
- Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding when baked.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and structure that give the pudding its body.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and becomes light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid so the flour hydrates into a pourable batter.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richer flavour and a tender, moist crumb.
- Blackberries
- Add fruit moisture, tartness and colour throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Folding in the blackberries. Mashed fruit adds extra liquid and sugar, so the pudding may stay wet or sink if the batter is overfilled. Baking until set, not just for a fixed time, ensures the centre firms properly.
“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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