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Dessert

Iris Pudding

A steamed pudding made with butter, sugar, egg, flour, baking powder, chocolate, vanilla, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Iris Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the egg, vanilla essence, flour, baking powder, and milk.

  3. Divide the mixture into three bowls.

  4. Color one bowl pink and add the chocolate to another.

Steam and serve

  1. Put alternate spoonfuls of the mixtures into a buttered mold.

  2. Steam for 1 hour.

  3. Turn out and serve with custard or fluff sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the pudding a tender, rich crumb.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter as it sets during steaming.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a light, creamed texture with the butter.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as the batter cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and stays light.

The step that matters

Layering the three colored batters into the mold. Alternate spoonfuls keep the pink, chocolate and plain batters distinct; stirring or pressing them together blends the colors and flattens the marbled effect.

“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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