Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the pudding
In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add the beaten egg yolks and 2 cups of milk to the mixture.
Stir in the soaked tapioca.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake slowly for 1 hour.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Tapioca
- Swells as it soaks and thickens the pudding as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set into a creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Folded in whipped to lighten the mixture and add rise and airiness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown slightly as it bakes.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the tapioca absorbs and that sets into custard.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives lightness. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so the pudding bakes denser and less airy.
“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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