Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the tapioca
Wash the tapioca.
Let it stew gently in the milk on the back part of the stove for a quarter of an hour, occasionally stirring it.
Let it cool.
Finish and bake
Mix in the butter, sugar, and eggs, which should be well-beaten, and flavor with vanilla or bitter almonds.
Butter a dish, put the pudding in it, and bake in a moderate oven for an hour.
Boiled version
If the pudding is boiled, add a little more tapioca and boil it in a buttered basin for one and a half hours.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Tapioca
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells and sets during gentle cooking.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca starch cooks and swells in.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Let the tapioca cool before adding the eggs. Eggs thicken and curdle when they meet very hot mixtures. Cooling the tapioca first lets the beaten eggs blend smoothly and set evenly rather than turning grainy.
“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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