Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn-starch Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Place the milk in a pan or small bucket set in a kettle of hot water on the stove.
When the milk reaches boiling point, add the sugar.
Dissolve the corn starch in a little cold milk and add it to the boiling milk.
Whip the egg whites to stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.
Cook for a few minutes.
Serve
Pour into tea cups, filling them about half full.
Set the cups in a cool place to chill.
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.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it heats and cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff froth, they lighten the pudding and add a airy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens.
The step that matters
Adding the dissolved corn starch to the boiling milk. Corn starch must be fully dissolved in cold milk first, or it will clump. Its starch granules swell and thicken the liquid only when heated, so the mixture needs to be stirred while it cooks to keep it smooth.
“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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