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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A caramel custard made by browning sugar, adding milk, eggs, and vanilla, then baking in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Make the caramel and custard

  1. In an iron saucepan, brown the 3 tablespoons of sugar to make a syrup.

  2. Add the white sugar and milk to the saucepan and stir until combined.

  3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and mix in the vanilla.

Pour and cook

  1. Pour the syrup into six cups and then pour the egg mixture over it.

  2. Place the cups in a pan of hot water and cook for twenty minutes.

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. Milk + eggtop 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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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
Set the custard into a firm but tender structure as they cook.
Milk
Adds moisture and a soft, creamy body to the custard.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps form the syrup that becomes the caramel top.
Brown sugar
Browning in the saucepan creates the caramel syrup and its deeper flavour.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the sweet custard flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the cups in a pan of hot water. The water bath keeps heat gentle and even, so the eggs set smoothly. Too much direct heat can make the custard curdle, turn grainy or bubble.

“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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