Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fruit Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Assemble
Butter a basin and line it with a pastry rolled to ½ inch thick.
Place half the gooseberries at the bottom of the basin.
Sprinkle half the sugar over the gooseberries.
Add the remaining gooseberries and top with the rest of the sugar.
Draw the pastry over the filling, sealing the edges well.
Boil
Cover with a cloth, tie it at the bottom, and boil in plenty of water.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Butter
- Enriches the pastry and keeps it tender and rich in flavour.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure and shape.
- Gooseberries
- Provide the tart fruit filling and moisture that cooks down during boiling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart gooseberries and balances their acidity.
The step that matters
Sealing the edges well. Pastry that is not sealed can split or leak during long boiling, letting filling escape and water seep into the pudding, which dilutes its flavour and texture.
“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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