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Dessert

Blueberry Pudding

A steamed pudding made with egg, sugar, sour milk, flour, blueberries, and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Blueberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg with sugar and salt.

  2. Add sour milk and Magic Soda, then mix well.

  3. Incorporate enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  4. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered basin.

  2. Steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  3. Serve hot with whipped cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that react with the soda to lift the batter.
Magic soda
Leavening agent that releases gas in the acidic milk, helping the pudding rise.
Flour
Provides the main structure, setting the batter into a firm, stiff pudding.
Blueberries
Add fruit flavour, sweetness and juiciness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the blueberries gently. Vigorous mixing develops gluten in the flour and can crush the berries, turning the batter streaky and dense. Gentle folding keeps the batter light and the berries whole.

“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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