Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Pancake Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the layers
Spread the pancakes with jam, roll them up, and cut them into slices.
Butter a mold and arrange the slices in a circle around the bottom, overlapping them.
Work the slices up the sides of the mold and fill the center with pieces of sponge cake.
Make the batter
Make a batter with the wheatmeal, milk, eggs, and vanilla to taste.
Pour the batter over the pancake and sponge cake layers.
Steam and serve
Steam the pudding for 1½ hours, then turn it out and serve.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 27,347 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
- Bind the batter and help the pudding set as it steams.
- Milk
- Moistens the batter so the cakes and pancakes soften and absorb liquid.
- Allinson fine wheatmeal
- Thickens the batter and gives the pudding body as it cooks.
- Sponge cakes
- Soak up the batter and add a soft, tender texture to the centre.
The step that matters
Steaming the pudding. Steam must be gentle and steady so the eggs set into a smooth custard-like batter rather than curdling or leaving the pudding watery. Keep the water topped up for the full time.
“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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