Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baked and Boiled Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Grease the inside of a mould or basin with butter.
Dip a pudding cloth in boiling water and dust it with flour.
Tie the cloth loosely over the basin or mould.
Ensure the water is boiling before placing the pudding in.
Boil the pudding until done, moving it frequently if in a cloth.
After boiling, plunge the pudding into cold water to prevent sticking.
Serve immediately after removing from the cloth or mould.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
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