Name: Berry Pudding
Ingredients: 1½ cups milk; 3 tablespoons melted butter; 2 eggs, beaten separately; 1 pint flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 quart berries or 2 quarts cherries or chopped apples, seeded

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Berry Pudding

Ingredients

1½ cups milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs, beaten separately
1 pint flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 quart berries or 2 quarts cherries or chopped apples, seeded

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the milk, melted butter, and beaten eggs.
In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

Assemble and bake

Pour half of the batter into a greased pan.
Layer the berries or cherries or chopped apples on top.
Pour the remaining batter over the fruit.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve

Serve hot with hard sauce or liquid 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the pudding as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and keeps the batter moist and tender.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.