Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a saucepan, whisk 3 tablespoons of fine flour into 1 pint of milk until smooth.
Simmer the mixture until it thickens, then stir in 2 ounces of butter and let it cool.
Add the yolks of 3 eggs and mix well.
Boil and serve
Flour a wet cloth or butter a basin, then pour the batter into it and tie it tightly.
Plunge the basin into boiling water, bottom side up, and boil for 1.5 hours.
Serve with plain butter and sweet sauce. Optionally, add ginger, nutmeg, and lemon peel to the batter.
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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Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fine flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth base that sets as the pudding cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the batter, which thickens and sets with heat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a soft, tender texture to the batter.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the batter and help it set into a custard-like texture.
The step that matters
Simmering the flour and milk. The mixture must be stirred while simmering so the starch thickens evenly without lumps or scorching. Once thickened and cooled, the batter sets more smoothly when the yolks are mixed in gently.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, butter, egg, nutmeg, lemon, sauce):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, butter, egg, nutmeg, lemon, sauce. 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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