Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Obanqe Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the custard
Combine the orange pieces and sugar in a bowl and let it stand.
In a saucepan, stir the corn starch, moistened with a little cold water, into the nearly boiling milk.
Add the egg yolks to the milk mixture and stir well.
Let the mixture cool, then pour it over the oranges.
Top and bake
Whip the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding sugar to make a frosting.
Spread the frosting over the pudding and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.
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.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Orange + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Messina oranges
- Provide the main fruit flavour and juicy body of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the oranges and helps make the meringue frosting stiff.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch thickens.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth custard as it heats.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set with a rich texture.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stiff foam that forms the frosting and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Stirring the corn starch into the milk. Corn starch must be dispersed in cold water first and added to hot milk while stirring, or it clumps. Starch thickens only when heated, so the custard needs to be kept hot enough while it thickens.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, corn, egg. 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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