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Dessert

Tapioca Cream

A sweet dessert made from tapioca, milk, eggs, and vanilla, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tapioca Cream

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 ↓

Tapioca Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in enough water to just cover it for about 2 hours.

  2. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  3. Add the soaked tapioca and cook until soft and clear, about 30 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten yolk mixture to the milk and stir briskly.

  3. Pour the mixture into a dish and let it cool.

  4. Flavor the cooled mixture with vanilla extract.

Make the topping and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the whipped egg whites.

  3. Add a few drops of rose or orange flavoring to the whipped egg whites.

  4. When ready to serve, dish the cream into sherbet cups.

  5. Top each cup with a large spoonful of the whipped egg whites.

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

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

  3. Vanilla + rosetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

Tapioca
Swells in liquid and sets the pudding into a soft, clear, thickened texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken and enrich the custard, while whipped whites give the light topping its foam.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the tapioca cooks in and the custard is built on.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg white topping.

The step that matters

Stirring the yolk mixture into the hot milk. Adding yolks to hot liquid can scramble them into lumps. Stirring briskly while pouring disperses the yolks evenly so the custard thickens smoothly.

“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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