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Dessert

Sago Pudding

A sweet pudding made with sago, milk, eggs, butter, and a thickened sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sago Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the pudding

  1. Boil sago in milk until soft.

  2. Set the dish in a kettle of hot water.

  3. Let the sago swell gradually.

  4. Stir in the beaten eggs, salt, and sugar to taste.

  5. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until lightly set.

Make the sauce

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Stir in sugar until thick.

  3. Add boiling water.

  4. Add cornstarch mixture until thin starch consistency is reached.

  5. Add vanilla or lemon extract to the remaining sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour half of the sauce over the pudding while hot.

  2. Serve it just 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Sago
Swells in milk as it cooks, thickening the pudding and giving it a soft, tender body.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the pudding its structure and a lightly firm texture.
Milk
Cooks with the sago to form the base of the pudding and adds moisture and richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce to a thin starch consistency, giving it body and a smooth pour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, rounding its flavor and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Let the sago swell gradually. Sago must absorb the hot milk slowly to soften evenly; rushing it can leave hard grains or uneven texture in the finished pudding.

“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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