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 ↓
Cup Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grease a mold well.
Place the jam at the bottom of the mold.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour, suet, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Stir in the milk until combined.
Pour the mixture over the jam in the mold.
Steam and serve
Cover the mold and steam for 1.5 hours.
Turn out the pudding and serve immediately.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the batter so the pudding holds its shape.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly at the edges.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and sugar to form a pourable, cohesive batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
The step that matters
Turn out the pudding and serve immediately. Steamed puddings are soft and delicate after cooking and can slump or tear if left to cool in the mold. Turning out promptly while hot helps them keep their shape and keeps the texture moist.
“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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