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Dessert

Corn-starch Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with corn starch, egg yolks, milk, and vanilla, topped with a baked meringue.

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

Corn-starch 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.

Prepare the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and milk, then sweeten to taste.

  3. Dissolve the corn starch in a little milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Flavor with vanilla extract and pour into a baking dish.

  5. Bake until set.

Top and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the meringue over the pudding and return to the oven 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.

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and colour to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a soft, creamy body.
Corn starch
Thickens the liquid as it heats, so the pudding sets into a smooth, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that gives a light, airy topping which browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue brown lightly.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until stiff and free of any yolk or grease, or the meringue will not hold its volume. Under-whipped or greasy whites weep or slump on the pudding.

“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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