Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Pine-apple 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Arrange the pineapple chunks in a pie dish.
Make the custard
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and pineapple juice.
Melt the butter in a pan, then gradually add the flour, stirring constantly.
Slowly add the milk and bring to a boil for three minutes, stirring continuously.
Add the sugar, pineapple juice, and egg yolks to the mixture, stirring until it thickens.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture over the pineapple chunks in the pie dish.
Place the pudding in the oven to heat through, then let it cool.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and cover the top of the pudding with them.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together885 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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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).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg yolks thicken the custard, and whipped whites give the topping its light, stiff structure.
- Flour
- Flour cooked with butter forms a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth custard.
- Milk
- Milk forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens as it heats.
- Butter
- Butter adds richness and flavour and helps form the roux with the flour.
- Sugar
- Sugar adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the pineapple.
- Pineapple chunks
- Pineapple adds fruity sweetness and acidity that cut through the rich custard.
The step that matters
Adding the milk to the flour and butter. Adding the milk slowly while stirring constantly keeps the flour evenly dispersed, preventing lumps and scorching. Boiling then thickens the starch so the custard sets smoothly.
Swap the pineapple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, flour, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Pineapplethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, sugar, milk. 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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