Name: Baked or Boiled Arrowroot Pudding
Ingredients: 2 tablespoonfuls of arrowroot; 1-1/2 pint of milk; a tablespoonful of brandy; 1/2 lemon; 2 heaped tablespoonfuls of moist sugar; 3 well-whisked eggs; 6 persons

Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Baked or Boiled Arrowroot Pudding

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Mix the arrowroot with enough cold milk to make a smooth, moderately thick batter.
Put the remaining milk into a stewpan with the lemon peel and let it infuse for about ½ hour.
When it boils, strain it gently into the batter, stirring constantly to keep it smooth.

Finish the mixture

Add the butter and beat well until thoroughly mixed, then sweeten with moist sugar.
Pour the mixture into a round pie dish that has a border of paste.
Grate a little nutmeg over the top.

Bake

Bake the pudding from 1 to 1¼ hour in a moderate oven, or boil it the same length of time in a well-buttered basin.
Just before putting it in the oven, stir in the 3 well-whisked eggs and a tablespoonful of brandy.
(Optional) For a nursery pudding, omit the eggs, brandy, and paste border.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

288Calories

15 gProtein

13 gFat

29 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Arrowroot	not in our table	0
Brandy	not in our table	0

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together553 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,340 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Arrowroot + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together817 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 milk into a smooth batter as it heats and gelatinises.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that the eggs and starch set within.
Eggs: Bind and enrich the pudding, helping it set as it cooks.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Lemon: Its peel infuses the milk, adding a fresh citrus aroma.
Brandy: Adds aroma and warm flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Straining the hot milk into the batter. Arrowroot thickens quickly once heated, so pouring the milk in slowly while stirring constantly prevents lumps and keeps the batter smooth.

Swap the arrowroot

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

Arrowrootthe original
Sweet potatofits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, brandy, lemon, sugar, egg. 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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Baked or Boiled Arrowroot Pudding