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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A custard dessert with caramelized sugar base, baked in water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Caramel Pudding

6 cups
Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the caramel

  1. Melt 4 tablespoons of sugar in a pan over medium heat until golden, being careful not to burn it.

  2. Divide the caramel into 6 parts and coat the bottom and sides of 6 cups.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. In a bowl, beat 3 eggs with 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  2. Add ½ cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract to the egg mixture and mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture evenly into the cups with caramel.

  4. Place the cups in a baking pan filled with warm water.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the pudding is firm.

Serve

  1. Turn out the puddings from the cups as soon as they are done and 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.

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Eggs
Set the pudding into a firm custard structure as they cook.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and melts to form the golden caramel coating.
Milk
Provides liquid that gives the custard a soft, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Caramelising the sugar. Sugar can go from golden to burnt within seconds, and burnt caramel tastes bitter. Removing it from the heat as soon as it turns golden keeps the flavour sweet.

“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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