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Dessert

Arrowroot Pudding, Plain

A baked pudding made from arrowroot, milk, sugar, nutmeg, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 159 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Arrowroot Pudding, Plain

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix the arrowroot with a little water in a bowl.

Make the pudding

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk with nutmeg and sugar until it boils.

  2. Pour the boiling milk over the arrowroot, stirring well.

  3. Add the butter and mix until melted.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pie dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 1 hour.

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. Arrowroot + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Arrowroot + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the body of the pudding and provides creaminess and moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the warm spice.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling milk over the arrowroot, stirring well. Arrowroot thickens only when hot liquid is stirred into it evenly. Stirring well prevents lumps and ensures the starch gelatinises uniformly, giving a smooth set pudding.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, nutmeg, sugar, walnut, butter. 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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