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Dessert

To Make Arrowroot

A sweetened, thickened starch dessert made from arrowroot, water, and optional flavorings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Make Arrowroot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Mix the arrowroot smoothly in a bowl with the cold water.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the arrowroot while stirring continuously.

  3. If using only hot water, transfer the mixture to a clean saucepan and boil until thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve the arrowroot in a tumbler, sweeten with lump sugar, and add flavorings as desired.

  2. For a richer version, mix arrowroot with cold water, then pour boiling milk over it and stir well.

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. Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Arrowroot + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Starch that thickens the liquid into a smooth, clear pudding as it heats.
Boiling water
Hydrates the arrowroot starch so it swells and thickens the mixture.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess when used for the richer version.

The step that matters

Stirring the arrowroot into the boiling water. Starch clumps if it hits hot liquid unmixed. Mixing it smooth in cold water first and stirring continuously while pouring the boiling liquid keeps it lump-free and evenly thickened.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (arrowroot, sugar, lemon, sherry, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against arrowroot, sugar, lemon, sherry, 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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