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Dessert

Light Batter Pudding

A steamed pudding made from flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter or suet, egg, and milk.

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 ↓

Light Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. If using butter, cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, then mix in the well-beaten egg.

  2. If using suet, mix and sift the dry ingredients, then add finely chopped suet.

  3. Add the milk and sifted dry ingredients alternately until combined.

  4. Mix in the well-beaten egg and milk until combined.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into greased pudding molds and cover.

  2. Steam individual molds for 45 minutes or a large mold for 1 ½ hours.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 the batter sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming so the pudding rises and turns light.
Butter or suet
Adds fat that makes the pudding tender and rich.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and dry ingredients alternately. Adding the liquid and dry ingredients in portions keeps the batter smooth and prevents lumps. Overmixing once flour is hydrated develops gluten, which can make the pudding tough rather than light.

“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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