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Dessert

A Delmonico Pudding

A custard pudding made with corn starch, eggs, milk, sugar, and topped with canned peaches and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓

A Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of five eggs with three tablespoons corn starch and six tablespoons sugar until very light.

  2. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk.

  3. Stir the mixture into one quart of milk, just as it is about to boil, adding a little salt.

  4. Stir until the custard has thickened well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the custard into a dish for the table and place it in the oven until it will bear icing.

  2. Place a layer of canned peaches over the top and mix the peach syrup with the custard.

  3. Beat the egg whites with two tablespoons white sugar until a stiff froth, then pour over the custard and bake until light brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

276Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
25 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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 + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites form a stiff froth that browns on top.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard that holds its shape when cooled.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard as it thickens. Starch must be stirred while heating near boiling, or it can clump or scorch on the bottom. Once it thickens well, the starch granules have swelled and hold the custard together.

“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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