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 ↓
Kiss Pudding
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.
Make the custard
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix the fine starch, egg yolks, and sugar until well combined.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and cook for a few moments.
Pour the mixture into a deep dish.
Top and bake
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the pulverized sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice to the egg whites, mixing until smooth.
Spread the egg white mixture on top of the pudding.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.
Serve
Serve cold.
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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Vanilla + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,961 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Fine starch
- Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, sliceable custard as it cooks.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks, they form the light foam that tops the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch thickens.
- Pulverized sugar
- Dissolves into the whipped whites to sweeten and stabilize the meringue-style topping.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites trap air when whipped, and any trace of yolk or grease prevents them from reaching full volume. Under-beaten whites collapse, while sugar added gradually helps keep the foam stable in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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