Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cup of Arrow-root
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
In a small basin, mix 2 teaspoons of arrow-root with 2 teaspoons of cold milk to form a smooth paste.
Add 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar to taste.
In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup of cold milk until it boils.
Pour the boiling milk over the arrow-root paste, stirring continuously until smooth.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then whisk in the yolks of 2 eggs.
Bake
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the arrow-root mixture.
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake in a preheated oven at 240°F (115°C) for 10 minutes.
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Arrow-root
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it is heated.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the arrow-root thickens into the pudding.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and thicken the custard, while whites lighten it when folded in.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding base.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling milk over the arrow-root paste, stirring continuously until smooth.. Starch granules only thicken properly once heated in liquid, and stirring while pouring prevents lumps from forming in the paste.
“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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