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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard pudding made with egg yolks, corn starch, sugar, vanilla, milk, and topped with stiff‑egg‑white meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, corn starch, white sugar, vanilla, and salt.

  2. Stir this mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Top and bake

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with 4 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites over the pudding and brown in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture as they set, giving the custard its body and richness.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth custard that holds its shape when cut.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch and yolks thicken.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar to form a stable meringue that browns on top in the oven.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue whip to stiff, stable peaks.

The step that matters

Stirring the yolk mixture into the boiling milk. Starch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken, and adding the mixture to very hot milk while stirring prevents lumps and keeps the yolks from scrambling. Cooking for the full time ensures the custard sets before the meringue goes on.

“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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