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Arrowroot Pudding

A steamed or baked dessert made with arrowroot, milk, sugar, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Arrowroot Pudding

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 ↓

Arrowroot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Mix 1 tablespoon of arrowroot with 2 tablespoons of cold water until smooth.

  2. Boil the remaining ½ pint of milk and sweeten with loaf sugar.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk to the arrowroot mixture, stirring continuously.

  4. Cook the mixture on low heat until thickened.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs until well combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered basin and cover with paper.

  2. Steam for 30 minutes or bake with a light crust if desired.

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.

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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Arrowroot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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 heats.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting the pudding as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding, giving moisture and a soft texture.

The step that matters

Gradually add the hot milk to the arrowroot mixture, stirring continuously.. Adding hot liquid all at once can make the starch clump before it disperses. Constant stirring keeps the arrowroot evenly suspended so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

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