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Corn Starch Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from milk, corn starch, eggs, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Corn Starch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the thickened base

  1. Dissolve corn starch in a little cold milk.

  2. Heat the rest of the milk to boiling.

  3. Stir in the dissolved corn starch.

  4. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat and add the butter while still hot.

  6. Let it cool.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs separately until light.

  2. Mix sugar and any desired flavoring into the yolks.

  3. Add the beaten whites.

  4. Stir in the corn starch mixture.

  5. Beat thoroughly to a smooth custard.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered dish and bake for 30 minutes.

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

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a custard.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the pudding its smooth, sliceable body.
Eggs
Egg proteins set during baking, adding structure and richness to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a smoother texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the set texture of the custard.

The step that matters

Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Starch granules swell and thicken only once the mixture is fully boiling. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan, and the starch needs this heat to thicken properly before the eggs go in.

“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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