Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Souffle Pudding
Ingredients
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.
Make the base
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Stir in the flour continuously until combined.
Add the milk and stir until thickened.
Remove from heat and quickly mix in the egg yolks.
Bake and serve
Just before serving, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture with the sugar.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Serve with hot or cold sauce.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and lift the pudding so it rises and stays light.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and help set it as it bakes, adding richness and a tender structure.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth base that holds the batter together.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and flavor and helps form the smooth starting base.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid body of the base, which thickens with flour and heat.
The step that matters
Fold the beaten egg whites gently. Stirring or deflating the whites releases the air trapped in them, so the pudding loses the lift it needs to rise and become light in the oven.
“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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