Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Vermicelli Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the pudding
Boil the vermicelli in the milk until tender.
Stir in the butter, sugar, and eggs, and flavor with grated lemon rind or essence of bitter almonds or vanilla.
Bake
Butter a pie dish and line the edges with puff pastry.
Pour the pudding mixture into the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Vermicelli
- Cooked until tender in milk, it forms the bulk and body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Cooks the vermicelli soft and adds moisture to the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the pudding into a custard-like texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning during baking.
The step that matters
Baking the pudding mixture. Eggs must set gently in the oven. Too much heat can make them curdle or dry out, so the pudding can turn grainy or tough rather than smooth.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, sugar, egg. 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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