Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of four eggs and the whites of three eggs for 15 minutes.
Gradually mix in 5 tablespoons of flour, 1 pint of milk, and ½ teaspoon of salt.
Beat the mixture well.
Boil the pudding
Boil it in a cloth for 1 hour.
Make the sauce
Make a sweet sauce from ⅔ cup white or sweet wine, ⅓ cup water, 3 tablespoons sugar, and a walnut-sized piece of butter.
Stir the sauce until boiling.
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 + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter together.
- Egg whites
- Beaten air gives the pudding lightness and lift.
- Flour
- Provides structure as the batter sets during boiling.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that turns the batter into a pourable mixture and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Beat the eggs for the full 15 minutes. Beating whites and yolks traps air in the batter, which gives the pudding its light texture. Under-beating leaves a denser pudding because less air is held in the mixture when it cooks.
Swap the cinnamon
The recipe marks cinnamon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, 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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