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Dessert

Kiss Pudding

A custard pudding topped with meringue and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Kiss Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thickened like jelly.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pudding pan.

  4. Stir in the raisins.

  5. Add vanilla extract to taste.

Make the meringue and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.

  2. Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat until stiff peaks form.

  3. Add vanilla extract to the meringue.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  5. Lightly brown in the oven.

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. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and enrich its color and richness as they set with heat.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a jelly-like custard when heated.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the light meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg white meringue.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens when cooked.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and sweetness scattered through the pudding.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until thickened like jelly. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil with constant attention to fully gelatinize and thicken. Undercooked custard stays thin and may taste starchy, while overheating or scorching can cause lumps or a burnt flavor at the bottom of the pan.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, vanilla. 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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