Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the egg yolk into ½ cup of fresh milk with salt.
Gradually stir this mixture into 3 tablespoons of flour until smooth.
Cook and serve
Heat 1½ cups of milk until scalding hot.
Pour the batter into the hot milk, stirring continuously to prevent burning.
Let it thicken without boiling, then serve immediately.
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps the pudding thicken as it sets.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, spoonable pudding as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the body of the pudding and gives it a soft, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into the hot milk while stirring constantly. Flour clumps and scorches if it meets hot milk unevenly or sits still on the base of the pan. Constant stirring disperses the starch so it thickens smoothly. Letting it boil can also cause a grainy or thin result, so the pudding should thicken without boiling.
“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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