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Dessert

Spanish Pudding

A custard dessert made with milk, gelatin, eggs, sugar, vanilla, served with whipped cream or strawberry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Spanish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Heat 2 cups of milk in a double boiler.

  2. Dissolve 1/3 package of gelatin in cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Beat 3 egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until well combined.

  4. Add the dissolved gelatin to the hot milk.

  5. Stir in the yolks without boiling.

  6. Flavor with vanilla extract.

  7. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Make the strawberry sauce and serve

  1. Boil 1/2 box of strawberries with 1 cup of water for 20 minutes.

  2. Add the juice of 1 lemon.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Mix in 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in cold water.

  5. Boil the sauce for a few minutes.

  6. Serve with whipped cream or strawberry 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Gelatin + saucetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

Milk
Forms the creamy base of the pudding that the other ingredients set into.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid pudding so it holds its shape when chilled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth texture.
Egg whites
Folded in whipped, they lighten the pudding and add airy texture.
Strawberries
Provide the fruit flavor and body of the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the strawberry sauce so it coats a spoon.

The step that matters

Stir in the yolks without boiling. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, leaving lumps and a grainy texture instead of a smooth custard. Keep the milk hot but not boiling and stir steadily while adding the yolks.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, gelatin, egg, sugar, vanilla, cream, sauce. 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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