Why it works: Egg and milk 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 ↓
Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the tapioca
Put the tapioca in a saucepan with 2 cups of milk over medium heat.
Stir often to prevent burning until the tapioca softens.
Make the custard
In a bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar.
Add the cold milk and softened tapioca mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.
Serve hot or cold.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 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).
Sugar and milk 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
- Tapioca
- Swells and thickens the milk as its starch softens, giving the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding a tender, custard-like structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the set custard.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the tapioca and forms the custard base.
The step that matters
Stirring the tapioca while it cooks. Milk and starch scorch easily on the bottom of a pan over heat. Frequent stirring keeps the mixture from burning and lets the tapioca soften evenly before it goes into the custard.
“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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