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Dessert

Ice Cream Pudding

A chilled pudding made from cornstarch, sugar, water, egg whites, milk, butter, yolks, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Ice Cream Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a bowl, mix cornstarch, salt, and sugar with a little cold water until smooth.

  2. Add boiling water and stir until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg whites and pour into cups or molds to set.

Make the dressing

  1. For the dressing, combine hot sweet milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks, and vanilla in a saucepan.

  2. Stir over low heat for 1 minute only.

Serve

  1. Once the pudding is cold, remove from molds and pour the dressing over it.

  2. Serve cold.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the boiling water into a set, smooth pudding body.
Egg whites
Beaten whites add air and lightness to the set pudding.
Egg yolks
Enrich the dressing and help it thicken into a smooth, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the dressing.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the dressing, adding richness and body.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat for 1 minute only. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle, brief heating thickens the dressing smoothly while keeping it creamy.

“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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