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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A sweet milk pudding flavored with cinnamon, lemon, and vanilla, topped with meringue and served cold with cream, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine sweet milk, sugar, and cinnamon stick in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Dissolve corn starch in a little milk and add to the boiling mixture.

  3. Beat the eggs well and stir them into the mixture until thick.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Flavor with lemon and vanilla.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gradually add fine sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pudding and bake until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with sweet cream, sugar, and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

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

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set, and their whites form the meringue topping.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard as it boils.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries its flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue hold its structure.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil and is kept there. Stirring prevents scorching and lumps on the bottom of the pot while the eggs set the custard.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cinnamon, corn, egg, vanilla, cream. 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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