Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Raspberry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Add the sugar, flour, jam, beaten eggs, and baking soda.
Beat the mixture together for 10 minutes.
Cook and serve
Pour into a bowl or mold and boil for 1 hour.
Serve with or without sauce.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + raspberrytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,308 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender texture by coating flour and holding air when creamed.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the pudding its body.
- Raspberry jam
- Adds sweetness, fruit flavor, and moisture to the batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps keep it moist and tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic jam to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture for 10 minutes. Beating combines the ingredients and traps air, but flour gluten develops with mixing. Beat until smooth and evenly combined, without overworking, to keep the pudding light rather than tough.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, 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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