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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, eggs, corn starch, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch together.

  2. Scald the milk and pour it into the egg mixture.

  3. Boil for a moment and flavor to taste.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites until frothy, then add sugar.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture on top and place in the oven to brown.

Serve

  1. Serve cold.

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard when heated, and whites whip into a light topping that browns.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, setting as the eggs and starch cook.
Corn starch
Swells when boiled with the liquid, thickening the custard so it holds its shape.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Boil the custard gently after adding the milk. Cornstarch must reach a boil to fully thicken, but the egg yolks can scramble if the mixture gets too hot too fast. Pour the hot milk in slowly while whisking, and stir constantly during the brief boil.

“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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