Skip to main content
Dessert

Vanilla Custard Pudding

A steamed vanilla custard made with milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, served with preserved fruit and fruit jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Vanilla Custard Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the vanilla pod in the milk for some time to flavor it.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. Pour the boiled milk over the lightly beaten eggs in a bowl.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Let it cool.

  6. Add sugar to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the custard into a buttered mold.

  2. Cover the mold with oiled paper.

  3. Place the mold in a saucepan with water reaching halfway up the mold.

  4. Steam gently until set.

  5. Let it stand for a few minutes.

  6. Turn it out onto a dish.

  7. Garnish with preserved fruit.

  8. Pour dissolved fruit jelly around it.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook gently.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and carries the vanilla flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the milk and eggs.
Vanilla pod
Infuses the milk with aroma.

The step that matters

Steam gently until set. High heat or boiling water makes egg proteins tighten too fast, producing a curdled, watery or rubbery custard. Gentle steaming with water only halfway up the mold lets the eggs set evenly and smoothly.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes