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 ↓
Two-egg Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar until well combined.
Add the butter and milk, mixing until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a dripping pan and bake until golden.
Once cooled, cut into four slices and layer with stewed apples or any fruit.
Serve with 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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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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the pudding as its starch sets when baked.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Gradually adding the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Adding flour in stages and mixing only until combined keeps lumps out and avoids overdeveloping gluten, which would make the pudding tough. Mixing the batter too long also deflates the air that baking powder's gas needs to lift it.
“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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