Why it works: Milk and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Cornstarch Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Reserve ½ cup of milk from the quart.
Heat the remaining milk in a double boiler.
Mix cornstarch and salt with the reserved milk.
Stir this mixture into the boiling milk.
Beat well for 2 minutes.
Cover the boiler.
Cook for 12 minutes.
Pour the pudding into a dish.
Let it cool for 30 minutes.
Make the topping and serve
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Mix in the powdered sugar.
Add the currant jelly or preserved fruit to the egg white mixture.
Combine well.
Alternatively, serve the pudding with sugar and cream instead of sauce.
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.
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Milk and sugar 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
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable pudding as it cooks and gelatinizes.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into the pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks to give the topping a light, airy texture.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the whipped egg whites and helps stabilize their foam.
The step that matters
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed before it hits hot milk, or it clumps. It thickens only once it reaches a boil and is cooked through, so the pudding needs steady heat and enough cooking time to lose its raw starch taste and reach full thickness.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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