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 ↓
Baked Batter 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix the Graham and white flour together, then sift the cream of tartar through it.
Beat the egg yolks, add the milk, and then stir in the flour to make a smooth batter.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the batter.
Stir in the dissolved baking soda and mix thoroughly.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a well-oiled pudding dish.
Place the dish in a shallow pan of boiling water and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the water and bake in the dry oven for another 30 minutes.
Test with a broom straw; if it comes out clean, bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.
Serve immediately with fruit sauce, sweet fruit, or cream and sugar.
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 + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air for lift, and yolks enrich the batter for a tender set.
- White flour
- Gluten-forming flour gives the pudding its main structure as it bakes.
- Graham flour
- Adds coarser texture and a nutty flavour to the structure of the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas, helping the pudding rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that reacts with the baking soda to produce rising and stabilises the whites.
- Sweet milk
- Provides moisture and liquid that hydrates the flours and sets with the eggs.
The step that matters
Folding the whipped egg whites into the batter. Overmixing or deflating the whites removes the air that makes the pudding light, so fold gently until just combined.
“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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