Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Gradually add milk to flour while stirring well to avoid lumps.
Whisk the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the batter just before cooking.
Boil
Pour the batter into a cloth and tie it securely.
Boil for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the pudding its body and structure.
- Eggs
- Whites trap air and set when heated, giving the pudding structure and a light texture.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour to form the batter and adds moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Gradually add milk to the flour while stirring. Flour starch clumps when liquid is poured in all at once, forming lumps that stay dry inside. Adding the milk slowly while stirring lets each particle wet evenly, producing a smooth batter.
“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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