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 ↓
London Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Boil the milk with the oats, butter, and sugar for 15 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a pie dish and add the custard, stirring carefully.
Bake and serve
Bake for 1½ to 2 hours.
Let it cool for a short time before serving.
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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Oats + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,939 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Oats + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,119 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Steam cooked oats
- Absorb the milk and thicken, giving the pudding body and a soft, set texture.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and body, and its milk sugars help the surface brown during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the oven.
- Custard
- Adds moisture and a creamy layer that sets as the pudding bakes.
The step that matters
Stirring the custard into the pie dish. Stir gently so the custard blends in without overmixing. Overmixing can break down the structure and make the pudding watery or uneven as it bakes.
“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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