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Dessert

A Farina Pudding

A pudding made from milk, farina, cream, nutmeg, sugar, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

A Farina Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a pot.

  2. Stir in the farina and let it boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

  4. Add the cream, grated nutmeg, powdered sugar, and eggs to the cooled mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pudding until set.

  2. Serve hot with wine sauce.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Farina
Thickens the milk into a starchy base that sets the pudding's body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Cream
Adds richness and fat for a softer, smoother texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the farina thickens.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cooled mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the farina and let it boil for 15 minutes. Farina must be fully cooked in the boiling milk so its starch gelatinizes and thickens; undercooked grains leave a raw, grainy texture. Cooling before adding eggs keeps them from scrambling.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, sugar, 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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