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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A milk-based pudding thickened with corn starch and egg yolks, topped with a lightly sweetened meringue.

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

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk until smooth, then add to the boiling milk and stir until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks and sugar.

  4. Add the vanilla extract and pour the mixture into a pudding dish.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until light, then add 3 tablespoons sugar and a few drops of vanilla.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding.

  3. Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes to set, keeping the oven door open to prevent browning.

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 + 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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a custard.
Corn starch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, sliceable custard.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and body.
Egg whites
Beaten to a foam, they form a light topping that sets in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and topping and helps the whites hold their foam.

The step that matters

Setting the egg white topping. Egg whites set with gentle heat. Too long or too hot in the oven makes the topping brown quickly or weep, and the custard beneath can overcook and curdle.

“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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