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Dessert

Arrowroot in a Mould, with Macaroons

A custard made from arrowroot, sugar, candied fruit, cream, and milk, set in a mould and topped with macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Arrowroot in a Mould, with Macaroons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat the cream and half of the milk until boiling.

  2. Mix the arrowroot smooth in the remaining milk, then add the sugar and vanilla.

  3. Once the cream is hot, stir in the arrowroot mixture and cook until thick like mush.

  4. Stir in the candied fruit, cutting larger pieces if necessary.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mould that has been wet with cold water.

  2. Once cooled, turn it out and decorate with whole macaroons.

  3. Serve on a platter with thick boiled custard poured around it.

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. Cream + buttertop 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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, set custard as its starch cooks.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, full body to the custard.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the arrowroot thickens.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the custard.
Candied fruit
Adds sweetness and chewy bits of fruit throughout the custard.

The step that matters

Cooking the arrowroot until thick. Arrowroot thickens only when its starch is heated enough to swell and set. Stopping early leaves the custard thin, and stirring the arrowroot mixture in well keeps it from forming lumps.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, milk, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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