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 ↓
Common Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs thoroughly and mix with the milk.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Gradually add the mixture to the flour, stirring until smooth.
Thin the batter with the remaining milk.
Cook
Flour a wet pudding cloth, pour in the batter, and tie it securely.
Place the cloth in boiling water and cook for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Serve
Serve immediately with wine sauce, hot fruit compote, or raspberry vinegar.
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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Egg + flourtop 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
- Eggs
- Set and bind the batter, giving the cooked pudding its structure and richness.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides starch and gluten that thicken the batter and give the pudding body.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it cooks into a tender, creamy pudding.
The step that matters
Tying the floured cloth securely. A floured, tightly tied cloth keeps boiling water out and stops the batter from leaking or sticking. The batter then cooks by steaming in its shape, so a loose cloth can let water in and spoil the pudding.
“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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