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Caramel Pudding

A gelatin-based caramel pudding with lemon flavor and custard sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Dissolve gelatin in hot water.

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff, then slowly add sugar to the egg whites while beating.

  3. Add lemon juice and grated rind.

  4. Slowly mix in the hot gelatin and beat until solid.

  5. Transfer to a platter and cool.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, make a custard with egg yolks and milk, adding sugar and flavoring to taste.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Egg + milktop 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 lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to give the pudding its light, airy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth custard for the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard sauce, adding richness and body.

The step that matters

Slowly mix in the hot gelatin and beat until solid. Adding hot gelatin too quickly can deflate the whipped egg whites. Pouring it in slowly while beating keeps the foam airy as the gelatin sets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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