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 ↓
Biscuit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Break the biscuits or cake into a bowl and pour boiling milk over them.
Sweeten and flavor to taste.
When cool, add the beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into a mold and steam for 30 minutes.
Serve
Once ready, turn the pudding onto a dish and pour sweet sauce around it.
Serve hot.
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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Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,009 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,874 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Biscuit + milktop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,332 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Biscuits or cake
- Provides the base that soaks up the milk and gives the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Softens the biscuits or cake and keeps the pudding moist as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Set when steamed, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the flavor of the milk and eggs.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs after the mixture cools. Eggs set when heated, so adding them to very hot milk can scramble them and leave lumps. Letting the mixture cool first keeps the custard smooth and evenly set.
“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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