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Dessert

Batter Pudding

A steamed pudding made from milk, egg, flour, raisins, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Stir the raisins and press them around the sides and bottom of a greased bowl.

  2. In a basin, mix the flour and salt together.

  3. Break the egg into a cup and pour it into the center of the flour.

  4. Gradually beat in half of the milk until the batter is smooth.

  5. Beat the batter well, then blend in the rest of the milk and beat for about 15 minutes until frothy.

Steam and serve

  1. Carefully pour the batter into the greased basin, avoiding disarranging the raisins.

  2. Cover with greased paper and steam for 2 hours.

  3. Turn the pudding out onto a hot dish and serve.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter as the pudding sets during steaming.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set firm and hold its shape.
Skim milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a smooth, pourable consistency.
Raisins
Provide pockets of sweetness and chew throughout the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Beating the batter well and until frothy. Thorough beating smooths out flour lumps and traps air, giving a lighter, more even texture once the pudding steams and sets.

“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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