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Farina Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with farina, milk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Farina Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk with the vanilla bean or extract until it forms a film on top.

  2. Reserve ½ cup of milk to mix with the farina.

  3. Stir the farina, salt, and sugar into the boiling milk until thickened like custard.

Combine with the eggs

  1. Remove from heat and beat the egg whites until stiff, then beat the yolks.

  2. Pour the hot farina mixture over the yolks and stir well.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until fully combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a large baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set without bubbling.

  2. Let cool and serve with 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into a creamy custard.
Farina
Thickens the milk and gives the pudding its body and soft structure.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and set the pudding, while whipped whites add lightness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Pour the hot farina mixture over the yolks and stir well. Adding the hot mixture gradually while stirring warms the yolks gently. If it goes in too fast or unstirred, the yolks can scramble into lumps instead of blending smoothly.

“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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