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 ↓
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
In a bowl, combine the flour and salt.
Make a well in the center and gradually stir in enough milk to form a smooth paste.
Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add it to the paste along with the remaining milk. Mix everything quickly until well combined.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a greased tin.
Place the tin in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 3 minutes.
Then place the tin under the roast meat until fully cooked.
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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Milk + flourtop 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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the batter's structure, setting as it bakes into a crisp-edged, airy shell.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it rise and set during baking.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it expands in the hot tin.
The step that matters
Preheating the tin in a very hot oven before adding the batter. The batter must hit a very hot, greased tin so it sizzles on contact and begins to rise quickly. A cold tin or cool oven produces a dense, flat pudding instead of a tall, crisp one.
“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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