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 ↓
Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the tapioca
Soak the tapioca in cold water overnight.
Cook the pudding
In the morning, add the milk and cook in a double boiler for 1 hour.
Add a pinch of salt and the sugar, beaten with the egg yolk. Stir for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Finish and serve
Beat the egg white until stiff and fold it into the pudding.
Flavor to taste before serving.
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.
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 + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Swells and thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca thickens into a creamy pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding.
- Egg
- Enriches the pudding, and the whipped white lightens its texture when folded in.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg white. Stiffly beaten whites hold air, so folding them in gently keeps the pudding light. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam and makes the texture dense.
“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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