Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mountain Dew 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 pudding
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the rolled crackers, milk, egg yolks, and ½ cup sugar.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes without letting it boil.
Top and serve
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add ½ cup sugar and a pinch of salt.
Spread the meringue over the pudding and brown it in the oven.
Serve the pudding 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.
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 + 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).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Rolled crackers
- Crumbs soak up the milk and thicken the mixture, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that bakes into a soft, moist pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Proteins set as the mixture heats, firming the pudding and adding richness.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that bakes into a light, airy meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites in the meringue.
The step that matters
Bake without letting the mixture boil. Egg yolks are delicate. If the custard gets too hot and boils, the proteins tighten and curdle, leaving the pudding grainy and watery instead of smooth and set.
“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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