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 ↓
English Boiled Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour, beaten eggs, sugar, and milk until well combined.
Grease a mold with dripping and pour the mixture into it, filling it to prevent water from entering.
Boil and serve
Boil the mold for one hour.
Serve with wine 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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Flour + milktop 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Flour
- Provides the starch that sets with the egg as the batter cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set as it heats, giving the pudding structure and a firm texture.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that makes the batter pourable and keeps the cooked pudding moist.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness to the batter.
The step that matters
Fill the mold completely before boiling. Filling the mold leaves no room for boiling water to enter. Water getting into the batter would dilute it and leave the pudding soggy and waterlogged.
“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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