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Dessert

Kiss Pudding

A custard pudding made with corn starch, milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and flavored with vanilla or lemon, topped with meringue and optional coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Kiss 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.

Make the custard

  1. Mix corn starch with cold milk, then add to boiling milk.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes, then stir in sugar, beaten egg yolks, butter, and flavoring.

  3. Pour into a baking dish.

Frost and bake

  1. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks, then gradually add 2/3 cup sugar.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until lightly browned.

  4. Reserve some frosting to moisten the top and sprinkle coconut on top.

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. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Corn + coconuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard as it boils.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and add richness and body to the pudding.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that bakes into a light, browned topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, in the topping, helps the meringue hold its shape.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boiling the cornstarch custard. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, and it must be stirred to keep it smooth and free of lumps. Boiling the custard for the full time keeps it from staying thin.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, milk, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla):

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, sugar, egg, butter, vanilla. 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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