Skip to main content
Dessert

Apricot Pudding of Tinned Apricots

A custard-like pudding made with cornflour, eggs, sugar, milk, and tinned apricots, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and apricot work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 826 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apricot Pudding of Tinned Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix the cornflour with a little cold milk.

  2. Add the rest of the milk and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Add the egg yolks and some syrup from the apricots.

  5. Bake for 15 minutes.

Top and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites with 1 ounce of sifted sugar until stiff.

  2. Layer the apricots over the baked cornflour.

  3. Spread the stiff egg whites on top, creating a rocky appearance.

  4. Brown in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes.

  5. Serve hot or cold.

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 + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Cornflour
Thickens the milk into a set custard as its starch swells when heated.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites whipped stiff give the topping its airy structure.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the custard and stabilises the whipped egg whites for the topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and body.
Preserved apricots
Adds fruit sweetness and acidity, with syrup adding flavour and moisture to the custard.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks; under-beaten whites collapse and weep, while over-beaten whites turn grainy and dry. Fat from yolks or a trace of grease in the bowl will also stop them whipping properly.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk. 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.

More apricot pudding recipes

Baked 8 See all 61 →

You might also like

Apricot Ice CreamApricot Ice Cream26 recipesMixed Fruit SherbetMixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes