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Dessert

Macaroni Pudding

A baked macaroni pudding with milk, eggs, sugar, topped with berries or jelly and meringue.

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

Macaroni Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the pudding base

  1. Combine broken macaroni and 3 cups of milk in a double boiler, and cook slowly until tender.

  2. Transfer cooked macaroni to a pudding dish.

  3. Add 1 cup cold milk, ½ cup sugar, and beaten egg yolks, then mix well.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

  5. Let cool.

Top and finish

  1. Spread fresh berries or jelly on top.

  2. Beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon sugar until frothy.

  3. Spread meringue over berries or jelly.

  4. Return to 300°F (150°C) oven to brown slightly.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Macaroni
Forms the starchy body of the pudding as it softens and thickens in milk.
Egg yolks
Enrich and set the custard, giving the pudding a rich, tender texture.
Egg whites
Whip into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the macaroni and forms the creamy custard base.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the meringue whip and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Returning the meringue to the oven. Meringue can over-brown or weep if baked too long or too hot, so a short, low-temperature bake to lightly colour the top is needed.

“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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