Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the tapioca
Soak and wash the tapioca.
Boil the tapioca in the milk until clear.
Finish and bake
Beat the eggs with the sugar and stir into the tapioca.
Add a little essence of your choice and bake.
Serve with cream or milk.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + 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).
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
- Tapioca
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells and turns clear when cooked through.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca cooks in and gives the pudding its creamy body.
- Eggs
- Their proteins set during baking, firming the pudding into a sliceable custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the mild, creamy flavour of the milk and eggs.
The step that matters
Boil the tapioca in the milk until clear. Tapioca pearls only thicken fully once their starch is cooked through, which shows as clear pearls. Stir often, because milk scorches easily on the base of the pan.
“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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