Why it works: Arrowroot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 159 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Arrowroot Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Mix the arrowroot with the new milk in a bowl.
Boil the quart of milk and stir in the arrowroot mixture.
When the mixture is almost cold, add the beaten eggs, butter, sugar, and nutmeg, and stir all ingredients together until well combined.
Bake
Pour into a buttered dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes or until set.
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.
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Arrowroot + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together159 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help the pudding set when baked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the pudding and provides moisture.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs to the cooled mixture. If the mixture is still very hot when the beaten eggs go in, they can scramble instead of blending smoothly. Waiting until it is almost cold keeps the custard smooth and even.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg. 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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