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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard pudding made with milk, corn starch, sugar, vanilla, eggs, topped with meringue and baked until browned.

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

Delmonico Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the quart of milk in a two-quart basin and place the basin in a saucepan filled two-thirds with boiling water.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and mix in 5 ounces of sugar and the vanilla extract.

  3. Mix the corn starch with the remaining ½ cup of milk and stir it into the yolk mixture.

  4. When the milk has a froth or film, pour it over the egg mixture and mix well.

  5. Pour the mixture into the basin over the boiling water and stir until thick like pound-cake batter.

Cool and top

  1. Transfer the pudding to a serving dish and let it cool.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks while gradually adding the remaining sugar to make meringue.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pudding, ensuring it is completely covered.

Brown and serve

  1. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes to brown, watching closely to prevent burning.

  2. Serve cold, with cream if 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 of the custard, providing moisture and body.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, sliceable texture.
Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the custard; whites whip into the meringue topping for structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize and brown the meringue.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma and a warm, rounded flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Browning the meringue. Sugar in the meringue browns quickly in a hot oven, and once it passes golden it turns bitter and burns within moments. Watching closely lets the surface caramelise and set without scorching.

“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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