Skip to main content
Dessert

Cornstarch Pudding

A sweet pudding made with water, sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and egg whites, boiled and folded, served plain or with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Cornstarch Pudding

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cornstarch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Boil the cold water and sugar together.

  2. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and cornstarch mixed with a little water.

  3. Boil until thick, stirring continuously.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Beat the mixture for ten minutes.

  3. Serve plain or with whipped cream.

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.

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.

  1. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, set pudding as it heats.
Egg whites
Add airy structure and lightness when folded in and beaten.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps give it body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil until thick, stirring continuously. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan. Stopping early leaves the pudding thin and grainy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

More cornstarch pudding recipes

Chocolate 13 See all 106 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes