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Dessert

Delicate Pudding

A light pudding made with boiling water, sugar, corn starch, lemon essence, egg whites, milk, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Delicate Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a double boiler, combine boiling water, sugar, and corn starch dissolved in a little cold water.

  2. Boil for about five minutes, stirring constantly, then add lemon essence.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the corn starch mixture.

  4. Heat until well mixed, then pour into a mold.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, combine the egg yolks and milk in a saucepan, add sugar to taste, and flavor with vanilla.

  2. Cook until thickened, then let it cool.

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. 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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 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

Corn starch
Thickens the boiling water into a set, sliceable pudding body.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they add lightness and an airy, aerated texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and richness for the custard.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the pudding's texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch mixture while it boils. Cornstarch can settle and scorch on the bottom or form lumps if not stirred constantly, and it only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil. Constant stirring keeps heat even so the starch gelatinises smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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