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Dessert

Banana Pudding

A custard made from milk, eggs, cornstarch, and bananas, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,470 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks, then stir in the powdered sugar and cornstarch dissolved in a little cold milk along with a pinch of salt.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the boiling milk and stir until it thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Slice the baked bananas and place them in a pudding dish.

  2. Pour the custard over the bananas and sprinkle with additional powdered sugar.

  3. Place the dish in a 350°F (175°C) oven and bake until the top is browned.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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 + bananatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Banana + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the custard sets into as it thickens.
Egg yolks
Proteins set on heating and add richness and a smooth, thick texture.
Cornstarch
Swells with heat and thickens the custard so it holds its body.
Bananas
Add fruity sweetness and aroma that flavor the pudding.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Pouring the egg mixture into the boiling milk. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if they meet very hot milk too quickly. Adding the mixture gradually while stirring constantly keeps it smooth, and the starch thickens evenly as it heats.

Swap the banana

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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