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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from milk, corn starch, eggs, and sugar, topped with jelly or jam and meringue.

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

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Mix the corn starch with cold milk to form a paste.

  3. Stir the paste into the scalded milk along with the salt.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly until smooth.

  5. Add the beaten egg yolks and sugar.

  6. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove from the oven.

  4. Cover with jelly or jam.

  5. Top with meringue.

  6. Return to the oven and brown slowly.

  7. Serve hot or cold, with or without 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.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding, giving it body and a creamy texture.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its set and smooth texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help thicken it, adding richness and a smooth texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and milk.
Meringue
Forms a light topping that browns in the oven, adding color and contrast.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until smooth before adding the yolks. Cornstarch must be heated with the milk until it thickens, or the mixture stays runny and lumpy. Egg yolks are added after this so they are not overcooked or scrambled by prolonged direct heat, which would leave the custard grainy.

“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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