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Farina Pudding

A baked pudding made with farina, eggs, butter, milk, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Farina Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a pot.

  2. Sift in ½ cup of farina.

  3. Stir until it forms a thick paste.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Stir quickly for a few moments.

Finish and bake

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of hard butter, 2 eggs, and a little nutmeg. Mix well.

  2. Butter a baking dish.

  3. Pour the mixture in.

  4. Add 2 cups of milk.

  5. Bake until set.

  6. Serve cold with cream.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg 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 boiling water into a paste that gives the pudding its body.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the pudding structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
Hard butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and dairy richness, softening the set custard texture.

The step that matters

Stir the farina paste. Farina must be stirred into boiling water and cooked until thick so the starch gelatinizes; adding it unevenly or stopping early leaves lumps and a thin, grainy pudding.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk. 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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