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Dessert

Boiled Custard Pudding

A boiled custard pudding made with milk, flour, eggs, and optional flavouring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Custard Pudding

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Flavour the milk by infusing it with a little lemon rind or cinnamon.

  2. Whisk the eggs.

  3. Stir the flour gradually into the eggs.

  4. Pour the milk over the mixture and stir well.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a basin that will exactly hold the custard.

  2. Put the custard into the basin.

  3. Tie a floured cloth over the basin.

  4. Plunge the basin into boiling water.

  5. Turn it about for a few minutes to prevent the flour from settling in one part.

  6. Boil it slowly for ½ hour.

  7. Turn it out of the basin and serve.

  8. Garnish with red‑currant jelly and serve with sweet sauce if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories
27 gProtein
14 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78

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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Set and bind the custard, giving it structure as they cook.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks into the body of the custard.
Flour
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when turned out.

The step that matters

Turning the basin while it boils. Flour is heavier than the liquid and sinks. Turning the basin for a few minutes keeps the flour mixed through the custard, so it does not settle into a dense layer in one part.

“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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