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 ↓
Good Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, whisk the eggs until well combined.
Strain the eggs and gradually mix them with the flour.
Slowly pour in the milk until the batter reaches a thin cream consistency.
Place a baking tin in the oven to heat.
Beat the batter briskly just before pouring it into the hot tin.
Bake and finish
Bake until the pudding is firm and well-colored on the surface.
To brown the underside, divide the pudding into quarters and turn it carefully.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness, setting the batter as the pudding bakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the pudding its body and rise.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture, so the batter steams and puffs in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat the batter briskly just before pouring it into the hot tin. Beating develops gluten and traps air, which helps the pudding rise. The tin must be very hot so the batter sizzles on contact and starts to puff immediately; a cold tin or a batter that sits too long loses its lift.
“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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