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Dessert

Boiled Batter Pudding

A batter made of flour, baking powder, milk, eggs, and butter, boiled for two hours, served with sweet sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boiled Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a deep dish.

  2. Sprinkle in the salt and add the melted butter.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk until smooth.

  4. Add the eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately.

  5. Mix in enough additional flour to make a very stiff batter.

  6. If desired, stir in the berries or sliced fruit.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil for two hours.

  2. Serve with cream and sugar, wine sauce, or any sweet 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as it sets into a firm, stiff batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set, giving the pudding body as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and softens the batter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture.

The step that matters

Mix in enough additional flour to make a very stiff batter. The batter must be stiff enough to hold its shape while boiling. If it is too loose, the pudding can break apart or turn soggy as the starch gelatinises and the eggs 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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