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Dessert

Velvet Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with eggs, sugar, corn starch, milk, and vanilla, topped with a meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Velvet Pudding

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 ↓

Velvet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks.

  2. Beat the egg whites.

  3. Dissolve corn starch in a little cold milk.

  4. Mix the dissolved corn starch with the yolks.

  5. Add half of the sugar to the mixture.

  6. Boil the sweet milk.

  7. Pour the boiling sweet milk into the yolk mixture.

  8. Stir until thick.

  9. Flavor with vanilla.

  10. Pour into a baking dish.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff.

  2. Spread the stiff whites over the pudding.

  3. Return to the stove until the top is slightly browned.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the eggs with sugar and butter for the sauce.

  2. Add boiling milk to the sauce mixture.

  3. Heat the mixture until it reaches a boil.

  4. Flavor with vanilla.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites form the stiff meringue topping.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the meringue.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that sets into the custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir until thick. Corn starch only thickens fully when the mixture is stirred and brought to a proper heat, which gelatinizes the starch. Stopping early leaves the pudding thin or lumpy.

“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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