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 ↓
Cake Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Butter a mold and add a layer of preserve.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the egg, butter, sugar, milk, flour, and baking powder until smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared mold.
Steam
Steam for 1 hour.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the pudding as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to a tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
The step that matters
Steam for 1 hour. Steam heats the pudding gently and evenly. If the water boils dry or the lid lets steam escape, the pudding cooks unevenly and may turn out dense or dry. Keep the water steadily simmering throughout.
“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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