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 ↓
Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Heat 1 quart of milk in a pot until it boils.
Sift in 1 cup of flour gradually, stirring until thick and stiff.
Make the thickened milk
For thickened milk, cream together ¼ cup of butter, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of flour.
Pour in 1 pint of milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve
Flavor to taste and serve with the hasty pudding.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Starch that swells with hot milk and sets the pudding into a thick, stiff mass.
- Milk
- Liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the pudding its body and creaminess.
- Butter
- Fat that adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the thickened milk.
The step that matters
Sifting in the flour gradually. Adding flour all at once to boiling milk forms lumps, because the outer starch hydrates and seals before the inside wets. Stirring while adding it in a slow stream keeps the starch dispersed and the texture smooth.
“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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