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Dessert

Farina Pudding — Cold

A chilled pudding made from farina, milk, eggs, sugar, and salt, set in a mold and served with cream or syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Farina Pudding — Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the farina

  1. Soak the farina in a little cold water for 1 hour.

Make the custard

  1. Heat ¾ of the milk and add salt.

  2. Stir in the soaked farina and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, and remaining milk.

  4. Pour the cooked farina mixture over the egg mixture and return to the heat.

  5. Stir for 10 minutes longer.

Chill and serve

  1. Pour into a wet mold and refrigerate until cool and set.

  2. Serve with cream or fruit syrup.

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

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Farina
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding body and a firm set when cooled.
Eggs
Add richness and help the pudding set as they thicken with gentle heat.
Fresh milk
Forms the liquid base that the farina swells in and the eggs enrich.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the set slightly for a smoother texture.

The step that matters

Returning the farina mixture to the heat with the eggs. Egg proteins thicken and can curdle or scramble if the heat is too high or the mixture is stirred too little. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly so the custard thickens 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.

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