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 ↓
Cottage Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and egg until light.
Add the nutmeg and sweet milk, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda and cream of tartar with the flour.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture just before baking.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a quart basin and bake slowly until done.
Serve hot, cut like cake, with a sauce made from 1 tablespoon flour mixed with cold water, added to 1 pint boiling water, and cooked for 5 minutes while stirring.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the pudding as the batter bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas, lifting the batter as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts with the baking soda to create rise and gives a slightly tangy flavor.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Stir the dry ingredients in just before baking. Baking soda and cream of tartar start releasing gas once they meet liquid. Waiting until just before baking keeps that lift for the oven, so the pudding rises well rather than going flat.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, butter, cream, egg):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, butter, cream, egg. 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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