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Orange Pudding

A custard pudding with orange slices topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Orange Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, mix sugar and cornstarch.

  2. Add egg yolks and milk, stirring until smooth.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Assemble and top

  1. Pour the custard over sliced oranges.

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the pudding.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and colour.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the custard body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue topping that gives a light, airy finish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps keep it smooth.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Cornstarch needs to reach a gentle boil while stirred constantly to swell and thicken fully. Stopping early leaves the custard thin, and stirring stops it from scorching or forming lumps on the bottom of the pan.

“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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