Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baked Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding base
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Gradually add the corn flour, stirring continuously.
Cook for at least 8 minutes until thickened.
Remove from heat and stir in sugar and flavoring if desired.
Bake and serve
Pour into a baking dish and add sultanas, raisins, or jam.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Corn flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth custard that sets firm when baked.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the corn flour thickens, giving the pudding its body and moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the set texture of the pudding.
The step that matters
Adding the corn flour to the boiling milk. Corn flour clumps if dropped in all at once or left unstirred. Adding it gradually while stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the mixture thickens evenly and stays smooth.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, flour, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, flour, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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