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Dessert

Cranberry Cornstarch Pudding

A pudding made with cranberries, coconut, and cornstarch thickened in milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and sorghum share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cranberry Cornstarch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Moisten the cornstarch with a little cold milk.

  2. Heat the remaining milk in a double boiler.

Thicken and set

  1. Add the moistened cornstarch to the heated milk.

  2. Stir in the sweetener, chopped cranberries, and coconut.

  3. Cook until thickened and pour into molds.

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. Coconut + sorghumtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + sorghumtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together55 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a set, sliceable pudding as its starch swells when heated.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the cornstarch thickens.
Cranberries
Add tart fruit flavor and a bright color to the pudding.
Sorghum or syrup
Adds sweetness and a rounded flavor to balance the tart cranberries.
Coconut or nuts
Contribute richness and a chewy texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Cornstarch only thickens fully when heated to a simmer and held there briefly. Stopping early leaves the pudding thin and gives it a raw, starchy taste.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sorghum. 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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