Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Fruit Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add milk or water until the mixture is the consistency of drop biscuit.
Stir in melted butter.
Assemble and steam
Butter a mold or small tin pan.
Layer the batter and fresh fruit alternately until the vessel is filled.
Cover tightly and steam for 1.5 hours.
Serve
Serve with a sweet liquid sauce.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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 starchy structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
- Milk or water
- Hydrates the flour into a soft dough and adds moisture to the finished pudding.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Fresh small fruit
- Adds moisture, flavor, and sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Cover tightly and steam for 1.5 hours. A tight cover keeps steam trapped around the pudding so it cooks evenly and stays moist. If steam escapes, the surface can dry out and the leavening may not set the crumb properly.
“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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