Skip to main content
Dessert

Tapioca Cream

A creamy dessert made from tapioca, milk, eggs, and sugar, topped with meringue or folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Tapioca Cream

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 ↓

Tapioca Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Rinse the tapioca.

  2. Soak the tapioca in cold water until soft.

  3. Cook the soaked tapioca in hot milk in a double boiler for 45-60 minutes until transparent.

Make the custard

  1. Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.

  2. Beat the yolks slightly.

  3. Add sugar and salt to the yolks.

  4. Gradually pour in the tapioca while beating.

  5. Return the mixture to the double boiler and cook until creamy.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Cool the mixture.

  8. Stir in the vanilla.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. If making a meringue, add 2 tablespoons powdered sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue over the tapioca mixture in a pudding dish.

  4. Brown in the oven.

  5. Fold the beaten whites into the mixture.

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

Tapioca
Thickens the milk into a soft, creamy pudding as its starch gelatinizes during cooking.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and thicken the custard, while whipped whites add lightness and structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the tapioca cooks in, adding richness and creaminess.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue whites stay stable and glossy when browned.

The step that matters

Gradually pour in the tapioca while beating. Adding hot tapioca too fast can scramble the egg yolks. Pouring slowly while beating gently warms the yolks so the custard stays smooth.

“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 tapioca pudding recipes

Apple 146Cream 36Pineapple 22Lemon 21Peach 15Baked 14 See all 530 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes