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 ↓
Delmonico Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Stir corn starch into boiling milk and let it boil for 2 minutes.
Beat egg yolks with sugar and flavoring, then stir in the corn starch mixture.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.
Top and finish
Beat egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
Spread the meringue over the pudding and bake until lightly browned.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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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).
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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard sets firm and holds its shape.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the custard, giving it a rich texture and set when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that forms the meringue topping, which browns and gives a light texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and, in the meringue, stabilizes the whipped whites.
The step that matters
Baking the custard until set. Egg yolks and cornstarch thicken as they heat, but overbaking can make the custard weep or turn grainy. Stop when the centre barely jiggles so it finishes setting as it cools.
“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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