Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Sago Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Soak the sago in water for 30 minutes.
Make the pudding
In a saucepan, bring 2 cups of milk to a boil.
Add the soaked sago and cook until it thickens.
Stir in ½ beaten egg and 1 oz. sugar.
Cook for an additional 2 minutes, then serve warm.
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 + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Sago
- Swells as it cooks in milk, thickening the pudding into a soft, spoonable body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the sago swells in and that gives the pudding its creamy flavour.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps set and thicken the pudding as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the mild flavour of milk.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten egg and sugar, then cook briefly. Egg proteins set with gentle heat, so the egg should be stirred in off the boil and cooked only briefly. Too much heat can scramble it into lumps and leave the pudding grainy.
“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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