Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Egg Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs with the cream and flour until well combined.
Melt a little butter in a pan over medium heat.
Cook and serve
Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan and let it brown on one side.
Carefully turn the pudding out onto a dish.
Add more butter to the pan and gently place the pudding back in to brown the other side.
Once browned, serve immediately with sugar or jam.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the batter into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender rather than dry.
- Flour
- Thickens the egg and cream mixture so it holds together when turned.
The step that matters
Turning the pudding. The pudding is still soft until the first side sets and browns. Turning it too early can tear it or make it collapse, so wait until the underside is golden and lift it gently with a wide spatula.
“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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