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 ↓
Steamed Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, melted chocolate, milk, salt, and melted butter in a bowl and mix until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam and serve
Steam for 1 hour.
Serve with foam 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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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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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
- Provides the starch and structure that hold the pudding together as it sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a tender crumb.
- Chocolate
- Supplies the chocolate flavor and some richness to the batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Steam for 1 hour. Steam must stay steady and the mold must be sealed so the pudding cooks through gently. Too little steam or lifting the lid lets temperature drop, leaving the pudding dense or uneven.
“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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