Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Butter a sheet of writing paper and lay it between the custard mixture and the cloth before tying it over.
Butter the mould or basin well and fill it completely.
After boiling, let the pudding sit in the mould for 5 minutes before serving to prevent breaking.
Beat the batter well just before pouring it into the mould and place it in the water immediately after tying.
Moisten and flour the cloth thickly before use.
Serve the pudding quickly after cooking to keep it light.
Open the pudding slightly at the top as soon as it is removed from the boiler.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
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