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Dessert

Velvet Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with eggs, sugar, corn starch, milk, topped with whipped egg whites.

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

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Velvet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Separate the eggs and beat the yolks in a bowl.

  2. Add the sugar to the yolks and mix well.

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

  4. Boil the milk in a double boiler, then slowly pour it over the egg mixture while stirring.

  5. Return the mixture to the double boiler and cook until very thick, stirring constantly.

  6. Flavor the mixture to taste, then pour it into a baking pan.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add ½ cup sugar and mix until combined.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding and brown slightly in the oven.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 enrich it, while whites are whipped into the meringue topping.
Corn starch
Starch thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its velvety body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, whipped into the whites, stabilises the meringue topping.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens when heated with the yolks and starch.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard until very thick. Starch only thickens fully once it has been heated, and the egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the mixture overheats. Constant stirring in the double boiler keeps heat even so the custard sets smooth.

“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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