Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Currant Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In a bowl, mix the egg, sugar, butter, sweet milk, currants, baking powder, and salt.
Add enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Steam the mixture for 30 minutes and serve hot.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, beat the egg until light, then mix in the sugar, sweet milk, and butter.
Heat the sauce and add flavor as desired.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter together as it steams.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas as it heats, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and, when beaten, adds structure and richness to the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the pudding and sauce.
- Currants
- Add tart, concentrated fruit flavor and pockets of moisture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Steam the mixture for 30 minutes. Steaming cooks the batter gently with moist heat, so it sets through without drying out. Lifting the lid too often lets steam escape and can leave the pudding heavy or uneven.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, sauce):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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