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Dessert

Strawberry Cornflour Pudding

A baked pudding made with cornflour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, and strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Strawberry Cornflour Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, mix cornflour, butter, sugar, and milk.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Beat in the yolks of 2 eggs and the white of 1 egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Reserve about ¼ of the mixture.

  2. Spread the mixture on the bottom and sides of a deep buttered pie dish.

  3. Fill the center with picked strawberries and pour the remaining mixture over them.

  4. Beat the remaining egg white with 1 teaspoon of sugar and spread it over the top.

  5. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 15 minutes until nicely browned.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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 mixture into a set, sliceable custard.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and add body and a richer texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornflour thickens.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel in the custard.
Egg white
Whipped with sugar, it forms a topping that sets and browns in the oven.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavour and juicy pockets within the custard.

The step that matters

Let the custard cool slightly before beating in the eggs. Adding egg yolks and white to a very hot starch mixture can scramble them into lumps. Cooling slightly lets the eggs blend smoothly and thicken gently in the oven.

“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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