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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, eggs, cornstarch, sugar, and vanilla, topped with browned meringue.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix cornstarch with a little cold milk.

  2. Heat the remaining milk until just before boiling, then stir in the cornstarch mixture.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with 6 tablespoons of sugar and vanilla, then mix into the milk.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding 3 tablespoons of sugar and 5 drops of vanilla.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the pudding mixture into a baking dish and bake for a few moments to set.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites on top and return to the oven to brown slightly.

  3. Serve chilled, optionally adding a spoonful of chocolate to the frosting.

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats.
Milk
Forms the body of the pudding and sets with the thickener and egg yolks.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set with body and richness.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the light topping, which browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the whites whip and stay stable.

The step that matters

Heating the cornstarch mixture into the milk. Starch must be heated to boiling-level temperatures to swell and thicken; stopping short leaves a thin custard, and overheating can scorch the milk or lump the starch.

“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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