Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tapioca Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tapioca
Soak the tapioca overnight in enough water to cover.
In the morning, add the milk to the soaked tapioca and slowly bring to a boil.
Add a pinch of salt and the butter.
Make the custard
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, then stir this mixture into the milk without boiling.
Finish and serve
Beat the egg whites with a little sugar and place on top.
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.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Tapioca
- Swells as it soaks and cooks, thickening the milk into a pudding-like texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca thickens and the custard is built on.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and add richness and body through their fat and proteins.
- Egg whites
- Beaten into a foam that tops the custard, giving it a light, airy layer.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the beaten egg whites.
The step that matters
Stirring the yolk mixture in without boiling. Egg yolks thicken and can scramble if they get too hot. Stirring them into the milk off the heat, rather than boiling it after, keeps the custard 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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