Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn-starch Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat 1 quart of milk in a kettle over boiling water.
In a bowl, mix 4 ounces of corn starch and 2 ounces of sugar with a little cold milk.
Cook and finish
Pour the corn starch mixture into the boiling milk and stir until thick.
Before removing from heat, fold in the beaten egg whites and add flavoring.
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.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a smooth custard.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as its granules swell and gelatinize when heated.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the starch from clumping when mixed in.
- Egg whites
- Folded in at the end, they add a lighter, airy texture to the pudding.
The step that matters
Stir the starch mixture into the boiling milk. Corn starch must be dispersed in cold liquid first and stirred while it goes into the hot milk. Otherwise it clumps in lumps instead of thickening evenly.
“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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