Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Oatmeal 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.
Make the custard
Mix the oatmeal and flour smoothly with a little cold milk.
Boil the remaining milk and add the blended oatmeal and flour.
Stir and boil gently for 5 minutes, then add salt to taste.
When cool, stir in the egg.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.
Bake gently at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Serve with cream and sugar or golden syrup.
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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Flour + milktop 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).
Flour and milk 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that gives the pudding its creamy, moist body.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells when boiled, giving the pudding structure.
- Fine oatmeal
- Adds thickening starch and a soft, slightly grainy texture to the pudding.
- Egg
- Sets during baking to bind the pudding and firm it into a soft custard.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg only when the mixture is cool. Egg proteins begin to set and can scramble when added to very hot liquid, leaving lumps and an uneven texture. Letting the mixture cool first lets the egg blend in smoothly before baking sets it evenly.
“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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