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Dessert

Iris Pudding

A steamed pudding made with butter, flour, eggs, milk, caster sugar, baking powder, chocolate, vanilla, and colored with cochineal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Iris Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla, then mix in the flour and baking powder.

  3. Stir in enough milk to achieve a smooth batter.

  4. Divide the mixture into three bowls: color one pink with cochineal, add chocolate to the second, and keep the third plain.

Steam and serve

  1. Spoon the mixtures alternately into a buttered mold.

  2. Steam for one hour.

  3. Turn out and serve with custard sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the pudding a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set firm as it steams.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding once it is cooked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming so the pudding rises and stays light.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it cream to a light texture with the butter.

The step that matters

Stir in enough milk to achieve a smooth batter. Too little milk leaves a stiff batter that steams dense, while too much makes it loose and heavy. Aim for a smooth, pourable consistency so the pudding rises evenly and sets with a fine crumb.

“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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