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 ↓
Sago 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.
Make the pudding
Cook the sago in a double boiler with the milk and cinnamon until soft.
Stir in the sugar and butter until well combined.
Once cool, mix in the beaten egg yolks.
Transfer to a buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
Top and serve
Make a meringue with the egg whites and drop it over the pudding.
Brown the meringue lightly and serve with cream.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Sago
- Swells as it cooks in the milk, thickening the pudding and giving it a soft, tender body.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and set the custard-like base, adding richness and a smooth, firm texture when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam for the meringue, which browns in the oven and adds a light, crisp topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the meringue brown lightly.
- Whole milk
- Provides the liquid that the sago cooks in, supplying moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Cooling before adding the egg yolks. If the sago mixture is still hot, it can scramble the beaten yolks, leaving grainy specks instead of a smooth, even custard-like texture.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, egg, cream):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Tarragonfits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg, cream. 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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