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Dessert

Sago Pudding

A sweet pudding made with sago, milk, sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Sago Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the pudding

  1. Boil the milk and sugar together.

  2. Add the sago and stir until cooked.

  3. Mix in the beaten egg yolks, butter, and vanilla.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour into a glass dish.

  2. Beat the egg whites until frothy and gently fold them in.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the sago cooks and swells in.
Sago
Swells as it cooks, thickening the milk into a soft pudding.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the pudding, adding richness and a smooth set.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they lighten the pudding with air bubbles.
Sugar
Sweetens the milk and adds flavour to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Gently folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives lightness. Stirring them vigorously knocks out those bubbles, so the pudding turns dense instead of 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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