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Dessert

Arrow Root Pudding

A pudding made from arrow root, milk, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, and lemon peel, baked and topped with preserved fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Arrow Root Pudding

Why it works: Milk and tea work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 738 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Arrow Root Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Take four tea-cups full of arrow root, and dissolve it in a pint of cold milk.

  2. Boil another pint of milk with some broken cinnamon, and a few bitter almonds or peach leaves.

  3. When done, strain the hot milk over the dissolved arrow root; stir to a thick smooth batter, and set it away to cool.

Finish and bake

  1. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them into the batter, alternately with a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar.

  2. Add a grated nutmeg and some fresh lemon peel grated.

  3. Put the mixture into a buttered dish, and bake it for an hour.

Serve

  1. When cold, cut slices of preserved quince or peach, and arrange them over the top of the pudding; or ornament with preserved strawberries or raspberries.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

288Calories
14 gProtein
14 gFat
26 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12

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

By Eliza Leslie. 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.

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.

  1. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Tea + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Arrowroot (in the method)
Starch that thickens the hot milk into a smooth, set batter.
Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and help the pudding set as it bakes.
Milk
Liquid that hydrates the arrowroot and forms the body of the custard.
Powdered white sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the set texture of the pudding.

The step that matters

Straining the hot milk over the dissolved arrowroot. Arrowroot thickens when it is heated in liquid. Pouring the hot milk in while stirring constantly lets the starch swell evenly, giving a smooth batter instead of lumps.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, tea, 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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