Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Baked Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the pudding
Boil the flour in the milk until thick and stiff.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter, nutmeg, and sugar.
Let the mixture cool, then mix in the beaten eggs.
Assemble and bake
Line a dish with the pastry and add a layer of marmalade at the bottom.
Pour the pudding mixture over the marmalade.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a stiff base that holds the pudding together.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding its structure and a custard-like body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the eggs set.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
- Marmalade
- Adds sweetness and a fruity, slightly tart layer beneath the pudding.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Beaten eggs added to a very hot mixture can scramble instead of blending smoothly. Cooling first lets the eggs mix in evenly, so they set into a smooth pudding when baked.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, nutmeg, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, nutmeg, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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