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Dessert

Banana Pudding

A layered dessert of tapioca custard, sliced bananas, and meringue topping, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sago

  1. Soak the tapioca or sago in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Add the milk and cook in a double boiler until clear.

  3. Beat together the egg yolks, sugar, salt, and butter.

  4. Stir the beaten mixture into the boiling sago.

  5. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Layer and top

  1. Layer 1-2 inches of the mixture in the bottom of a pan.

  2. Slice bananas thinly over the custard.

  3. Continue layering until all custard is used.

  4. Beat the egg whites until light and sweeten them slightly.

  5. Spread the meringue on top.

  6. Return to the oven for a few moments until set.

  7. Serve very cold.

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

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

  2. Milk + bananatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + bananatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,536 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tapioca or sago
Swells as it soaks and cooks, thickening the milk into a clear, pudding-like base.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set into a smooth, creamy custard.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that forms a light, airy topping that browns in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Bananas
Add fruity sweetness and flavour between the custard layers.

The step that matters

Stir the beaten yolk mixture into the boiling sago. Adding hot starch-thickened liquid to egg yolks without tempering can scramble them, leaving lumps. Stirring steadily while the sago boils keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the banana

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Bananathe original

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