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Dessert

Arrowroot

A dessert made by mixing egg yolk with arrowroot, simmering in water, sweetening, adding brandy, and folding in whipped egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

Arrowroot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the egg

  1. Break the egg and separate the yolk and white.

  2. Whip the yolk and white to a stiff froth.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix the yolk with arrowroot and a little water until smooth.

  2. Pour the yolk mixture slowly into boiling water while stirring continuously.

  3. Let it simmer until jelly-like.

  4. Sweeten to taste and add the brandy.

  5. Stir in the frothed egg white and serve hot in winter or chilled in summer.

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. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  2. Arrowroot + brandytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + arrowroottop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, jelly-like set as it heats.
Egg
The frothed white adds a light, airy texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Pouring the yolk mixture into boiling water. Pour slowly while stirring constantly so the arrowroot disperses evenly and does not form lumps. Arrowroot thickens as it heats, so an even mix gives a smooth, uniform jelly.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, brandy):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, brandy. 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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