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Dessert

Orange Pudding

A custard pudding with orange slices, topped with whipped egg whites and browned under a broiler.

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 ↓

Orange Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter.

  2. Dissolve the corn starch in a little milk, then add to the saucepan.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks and cook until thickened.

  4. Let the custard cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut the oranges and sprinkle with sugar.

  2. Pour the custard over the oranges and mix well.

  3. Whip the egg whites and spread over the top.

  4. Brown the frosting under a broiler.

  5. Serve cold.

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the base of the custard, providing liquid and body for the pudding.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and smoothness.
Oranges
Provide the bright citrus flavour and acidity that contrasts with the sweet custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the oranges and the dish, and helps the topping brown.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms a light topping, which browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Corn starch thickens only when the mixture reaches a boil and is stirred, so undercooking leaves a thin custard, while overheating can scorch it. Egg yolks also need gentle heat to thicken without curdling.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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