Skip to main content
Dessert

Tapioca Cream

A baked custard made with tapioca, egg yolks, raisins, and milk, topped with beaten egg whites and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Tapioca Cream

Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Tapioca Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the tapioca in water for 4 hours.

  2. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, soaked tapioca, and raisins.

  2. Add the mixture to the boiling milk and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into molds.

Top and bake

  1. Top with beaten egg whites and sprinkle with sugar.

  2. Bake until the topping is lightly 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.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk 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
Thickens the custard as it cooks, giving it a set, creamy body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and a smooth texture.
Egg whites
Whipped and spooned on top, they form a light layer that browns in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream that the tapioca thickens.
Raisins
Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cream.

The step that matters

Add the mixture to the boiling milk and cook for a few minutes. Tapioca starch must be heated fully to swell and thicken the custard. Stirring gently while it cooks prevents the egg yolks from scrambling and keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Lemonfits about as well

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

More tapioca cream recipes

Soup 33Pudding 6 See all 98 →

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes