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Dessert

Arrowroot

A warm or chilled dessert made from arrowroot, egg, brandy, and sweetener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,738 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. 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 mixture slowly into ½ cup of boiling water, stirring constantly.

  3. Let it simmer until jelly-like.

  4. Sweeten to taste and add the French brandy.

  5. Stir in the frothed egg white.

  6. Stir in the beaten white.

Serve

  1. Serve hot in winter.

  2. Chill first on ice (for 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. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  3. Arrowroot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together817 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Whipped white adds a light, airy froth to the finished pudding.
Arrowroot
Starch that thickens the liquid into a smooth, jelly-like set when simmered.
Water
Liquid that the arrowroot thickens into the pudding base.
French brandy
Adds a distinct aroma to the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Pour the arrowroot mixture slowly while stirring constantly. Arrowroot starch can clump if it hits boiling liquid in a lump. Pouring slowly while stirring disperses the starch evenly so it thickens into a smooth jelly rather than lumps.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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