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Dessert

Polka Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with milk, cornstarch, almonds, and flavored with rose or orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rose and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Polka Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk, then pour the boiling milk onto it while stirring continuously.

  3. Let the mixture thicken over the heat.

  4. Add the rose or orange-flower water, starting with 1 tablespoon and adjusting to taste.

  5. Stir in the cream or butter.

  6. Blanch the bitter and sweet almonds, then grind them finely with the egg white.

  7. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks with the 3 whole eggs, then add to the mixture.

  8. Stir over the heat until thick and smooth.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold and chill until set.

  2. Serve with polka sauce, hot sauce with cold pudding on hot plates.

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. Rose + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it heats.
Eggs
Enrich and bind the custard, helping it set firm when chilled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into the pudding.
Cream or butter
Adds fat for a richer, softer texture and mouthfeel.
Sweet almonds
Contribute body and nutty flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling milk onto the cornstarch. Cornstarch clumps if it meets hot liquid without constant stirring, so the milk must be poured in slowly while whisking, and the mixture then kept over heat so the starch fully thickens.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Pecansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rose, cream, 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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