Skip to main content
Dessert

Bee Brand Tapioca Custard Pudding

A sweet custard made with Bee Brand tapioca, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Bee Brand Tapioca Custard Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Wash and soak the Pearl Tapioca for 5-6 hours or overnight, then drain it before using.

  2. Soak the Granulated Tapioca in enough water to cover until absorbed.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler and add the prepared tapioca.

  2. Cook until the tapioca is soft and transparent.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and mix in the sugar and salt.

  4. Pour the tapioca mixture into the yolks.

  5. Return the mixture to the double boiler.

  6. Cook for 3 minutes.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  8. Add the vanilla extract.

Cool and serve

  1. Let cool before serving.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Tapioca
Its starch swells and thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding body.
Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the custard, while beaten whites add lightness.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and moisture for the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the custard.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma and flavor to the custard.

The step that matters

Returning the tapioca mixture to the double boiler. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle, indirect heat from the double boiler cooks them slowly, keeping the custard smooth and thickened.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes