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 ↓
Good Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well beaten.
Strain the eggs and gradually mix in the flour.
Slowly add the milk until the batter is the consistency of thin cream.
Bake
Place a baking tin under a roasting joint (preferably beef) to heat.
Beat the batter briskly just before pouring it into the hot tin.
Bake until the pudding is firm and well-colored, watching to prevent burning.
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).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 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
- Eggs
- Set the structure and, as they expand with heat, help the pudding rise.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the pudding its body and firm crumb.
- Whole milk
- Thins the batter so it can rise, and its water turns to steam that lifts the pudding.
The step that matters
Beat the batter briskly just before pouring it into the hot tin. Batter that stands lets the flour settle and lose its air, so it rises less. Pouring it into a very hot tin sets the edges at once and produces the steam that lifts the pudding.
“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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