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Dessert

Tapioca Cream

A dessert of tapioca cooked in milk and thickened with egg yolks, finished with vanilla and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Tapioca Cream

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Tapioca Cream

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in 1 cup of milk overnight, or use 4 tablespoons pearl tapioca in a double boiler with ½ cup hot water and cook until the water is absorbed.

  2. Add the remaining milk and cook until the tapioca is tender.

Make the custard

  1. Separate the eggs; add the sugar and salt to the yolks.

  2. Pour in the milk mixture, return to the boiler, and cook until it thickens like soft custard.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the tapioca mixture.

  4. Add vanilla and let cool, or pour the tapioca into cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, add 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and spread on top.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly browned.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Tapioca
Swells in milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its thick, soft, slightly chewy body.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard when cooked, and whipped whites add lightness and structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the tapioca swells in and the custard sets from.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue topping stay glossy and stable.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over heat. Egg yolks thicken as they heat but can scramble if the mixture gets too hot or cooks too fast. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring keep the custard smooth and 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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