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Dessert

Batter Pudding

A simple steamed pudding made from egg, flour, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Fill a saucepan halfway with warm water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Combine 2 teaspoons of flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl.

  4. Break 1 egg into the bowl and mix the egg with the flour and salt.

  5. Gradually add ⅔ cup of milk.

  6. Stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon.

  7. Let the batter stand for 30 minutes.

  8. Stir the batter again.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a cup well with butter.

  2. Pour the batter into the greased cup.

  3. Soak a small cloth in boiling water.

  4. Flour the cloth.

  5. Tie the cloth over the top of the cup with string.

  6. Place the cup in the saucepan.

  7. Let it boil for 45 minutes.

  8. Remove the cloth from the cup.

  9. Serve the pudding as desired.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that gives the pudding its body.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the batter into a pourable mixture.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture vigorously. Vigorous stirring develops gluten in the flour, which gives the batter its elasticity and helps it set firm rather than crumbly. Letting the batter stand afterward allows the flour to hydrate fully, smoothing out lumps and improving texture.

“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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