Why it works: Arrowroot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 159 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Arrow Root Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Mix the arrowroot with a small portion of the milk.
Boil the remaining milk and add it to the arrowroot mixture.
When nearly boiling, stir in the beaten egg yolks, sugar, butter, and nutmeg.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
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.
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Arrowroot + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together159 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as it heats.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help the pudding set as they cook.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the arrowroot thickens and the eggs enrich.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the custard's flavour.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smoother texture and richer flavour.
The step that matters
When nearly boiling, stir in the beaten egg yolks, sugar, butter, and nutmeg.. Arrowroot thickens best when the milk is hot, but egg yolks can curdle if they get too hot too fast. Stirring steadily and removing the pan from heat near boiling keeps the custard smooth.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg. 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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