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Arrowroot Pudding

A baked custard made with milk, arrowroot, sugar, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Arrowroot Pudding

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Arrowroot Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the arrowroot in a little water and add it to the boiling milk along with the sugar.

  3. Let the mixture reboil, then remove from heat.

  4. Beat in the beaten eggs and the extracts.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered earthenware dish.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. A few minutes before removing from the oven, sift 2 tablespoons of sugar over the pudding and return it to the oven to glaze.

  4. Serve cold.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cinnamon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together166 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 reboils.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting the custard when baked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and caramelises on top for a glaze.

The step that matters

Let the mixture reboil, then remove from heat. Arrowroot needs to reach a boil to thicken fully. Beaten eggs added afterwards are kept off the heat so they do not scramble, which keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, cinnamon, milk, sugar, egg, butter):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Arrowrootthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, cinnamon, milk, sugar, egg, butter. 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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