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Coffee Cornstarch Pudding

A coffee-based pudding thickened with cornstarch and studded with walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coffee and walnut work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 289 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Coffee Cornstarch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a double boiler, combine the strong coffee and sugar.

  2. Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water and add it to the coffee mixture.

  3. Cook until the mixture thickens.

  4. Stir in the chopped walnuts.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the pudding into molds.

  2. Serve with whipped cream and additional sugar.

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. Coffee + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  4. Coffee + meattop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together173 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + walnuttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the coffee liquid into a set, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
Strong coffee
Provides the main liquid and the coffee flavor of the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
English walnut meats
Adds crunch and a nutty texture against the smooth pudding.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Cornstarch only thickens once the mixture reaches a boil and is held there briefly. Undercooking leaves it thin and runny, while stirring gently prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, sugar, meat):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Nutsfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, sugar, meat. 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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