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
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Gradually add the flour to the butter.
Pour in the hot milk and cook in a double boiler for 8 minutes, stirring often.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add to the mixture and let cool.
Bake and serve
Half an hour before serving, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve immediately with any cream 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).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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
- Eggs
- Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air that makes the pudding rise and become light.
- Egg yolks
- Yolks thicken the milk base and add richness and structure as they set.
- Flour
- Flour cooked into the butter and hot milk thickens the base so it can hold the foam.
- Butter
- Butter adds fat and a rich flavor to the base.
- Milk
- Hot milk forms the liquid body of the base that the flour thickens.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Overmixing or deflating them while folding causes a dense, flat pudding, so fold gently and bake soon after.
“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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