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Dessert

Velvet Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with eggs, sugar, cornstarch, milk, vanilla, and butter, topped with a whipped egg white layer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Velvet Pudding

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 ↓

Velvet 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 pudding

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Mix the sugar and cornstarch in the cold milk.

  3. Add the mixture to the eggs.

  4. Boil the 3 pints of milk.

  5. Pour the hot milk over the egg mixture while stirring until thick.

  6. Add vanilla and pour into a baking dish.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites with 1 cup of sugar until stiff.

  2. Pour the beaten egg whites over the pudding.

  3. Return the dish to the oven at 350°F (175°C) to brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the yolks of 2 eggs with 1 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Add 1 cup of boiling milk and heat until it comes to a boil.

  3. Flavor the sauce with vanilla.

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. 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. Vanilla + buttertop 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set with heat and give the pudding structure.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk and gives the custard a smooth, sliceable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that gives the custard its moisture and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot milk into the eggs. Eggs scramble if they meet hot liquid too fast, so pour slowly while stirring constantly. Stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the custard smooth as it thickens.

“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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