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Corn Starch Pudding

A milk pudding thickened with corn starch and egg whites, sweetened with sugar and optionally flavored with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Corn Starch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Dissolve the corn starch in a little of the milk.

  3. Stir the sugar into the remaining milk.

Make the pudding

  1. Heat the mixture on the stove.

  2. When the milk begins to boil, add the dissolved corn starch.

  3. Stir constantly until it becomes a smooth paste.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Cook for a little longer to set the whites.

  6. Optionally, flavor with vanilla.

  7. Pour into a mold.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set pudding as it heats and gelatinizes.
Egg whites
Whip into foam that adds lightness and helps the pudding set when cooked.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to its smooth, soft texture.
Rich milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a creamy custard.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until it becomes a smooth paste. Cornstarch granules can clump and scorch on the bottom if left unstirred. Constant stirring as the starch heats keeps it dispersed and evenly thickened.

“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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