Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Dumplings and Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the custard
Beat the yolks of 8 eggs and the whites of 4 eggs together until well mixed.
Stir in ½ cup of loaf sugar and 3-4 ounces of melted butter.
Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until it thickens.
Bake and top
Line the bottom of a dish with a sheet of paper and pour in the mixture.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for half an hour.
Use the remaining 4 egg whites to make a meringue for the top.
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.
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 add richness as they set when heated.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a meringue that gives the top a light, airy structure.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the meringue stay glossy and stable.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the custard.
The step that matters
Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until it thickens. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat or no stirring can scramble the eggs into lumps. Gentle heat with constant stirring thickens the custard 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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