Name: Boiled Berry or Cherry Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 cup sweet milk; 2 cups berries (or cherries); 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Berry or Cherry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the sugar, flour, sweet milk, berries (or cherries), eggs, and baking powder together until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a cloth bag and tie it securely.

Boil and serve

Boil the bag in a pot of water for 2 hours.
Remove the bag from the water and let it cool slightly before serving.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the pudding its body.
Eggs: Bind the batter and set as it cooks, giving the pudding structure.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking, helping the pudding rise and become lighter.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps soften the crumb.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture and helps the batter form a smooth, pourable mixture.
Berries: Add fruit flavor, color and extra moisture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling. The pudding cooks by the hot water surrounding the bag. If the water stops boiling, the heat drops and the batter cooks unevenly, turning dense and gummy in places.

“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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Boiled Berry or Cherry Pudding