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Dessert

Tapioca Pudding

A sweet pudding made from soaked tapioca, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, topped with a browned meringue.

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

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 ↓

Tapioca Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and cook

  1. Soak the tapioca in water overnight.

  2. Add the milk to the soaked tapioca and stir gently.

  3. Boil for about 20 minutes.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks and sugar, then boil for a few more minutes.

  5. Pour the mixture into an earthen dish.

  6. Flavor with vanilla.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar to the beaten whites.

  3. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  4. Place the dish in a 300°F (150°C) oven to brown slightly.

Serve

  1. Serve 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.

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.

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

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla 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

Tapioca
Swells during soaking and cooking to give the pudding its thick, soft body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into a creamy custard with the thickened tapioca.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness when gently boiled with the mixture.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping and browns lightly in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the meringue topping.

The step that matters

Boiling the egg yolks into the custard. Egg yolks thicken only when heated enough to set, but overheating can curdle them. Keep the mixture at a gentle boil, stirring, so the pudding 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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