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 ↓
Whortleberry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine whortleberries, molasses, milk, butter, egg, baking soda, and salt.
Add flour gradually until the mixture thickens like pound cake batter.
Cook
Pour into a greased pudding mold.
Boil for three hours.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Whortleberries
- Provide fruit flavor, moisture, and dark color throughout the pudding.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, deep flavor, and dark color, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Flour
- Provides starch and structure so the batter thickens and holds together when cooked.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps set the pudding as it cooks.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
The step that matters
Adding the flour. Flour should be added gradually and only until the batter thickens like pound cake batter. Too much flour develops excess starch and gluten, making the pudding stiff and dense, while too little leaves it loose and wet.
“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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