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Dessert

Maizena Pudding

A custard-like pudding thickened with maizena, sweetened with sugar, flavored with lemon, topped with a whipped egg white frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Maizena Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the maizena, beaten egg yolks, 5 tablespoons of sugar, and a pinch of salt.

  3. Be careful not to let it burn as it thickens.

  4. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly, then flavor with lemon extract.

  5. Pour the mixture into 2 dishes.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and flavor.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture on top of the puddings.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the frosting browns.

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 + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into a smooth custard.
Maizena (cornstarch)
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its set body.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the custard; whites are whipped to make the browned topping.
White powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and the meringue-style topping, and helps the whites stay stable.

The step that matters

Keeping the custard from burning as it thickens. Starch-thickened mixtures can scorch on the bottom of the pan and thicken unevenly if heat is too high. Constant stirring and gentle heat keep the custard smooth before it is poured out.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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