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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A sweet dessert made with caramel, milk, egg yolks, cornstarch, and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Caramel 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 caramel

  1. Melt the sugar in a saucepan, being careful not to burn it.

  2. Add the hot water to the melted sugar and stir until combined.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a separate pot.

  2. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch together.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Return the mixture to the pot and cook until thickened.

  5. Add the caramel.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites over the pudding.

  3. Brown the pudding in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Serve

  1. Serve with whipped cream flavored lightly 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.

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Sugar
Melts into the caramel that gives the pudding its flavor and color.
Milk
Forms the body of the custard, providing richness and a smooth texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set, giving it a rich, smooth structure.
Cornstarch
Stabilizes the custard by thickening it so it holds its shape when cooled.
Egg whites
Whipped into stiff peaks, they form a light topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Melt the sugar without burning it. Sugar darkens quickly past its melting point, and burnt caramel turns bitter. Watch the color closely and remove it from heat as soon as it turns amber.

“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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