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Dessert

Honeycomb Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, gelatin, eggs, sugar, brandy, and flavoring, folded with beaten egg whites and set overnight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Honeycomb Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of milk for 1 hour.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining milk, soaked gelatin, sugar, and flavoring over low heat.

  3. When it begins to warm, beat the yolks of the eggs and add them to the milk mixture.

  4. Stir continuously until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

Combine and set

  1. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold the milk mixture into the beaten egg whites and mix quickly.

  3. Pour the mixture into a wet mold and let it stand overnight.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar 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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the milk custard, while whites are beaten to add airy lightness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a creamy body.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set texture of the pudding.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until it thickens, but do not let it boil.. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they overheat, so the custard must thicken gently over low heat. Stirring keeps heat even and prevents lumps.

“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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