Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Coen Flour 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 batter
In a saucepan, mix corn flour, milk, sugar, salt, and grated orange peel.
Stir over medium heat until it boils, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Add the egg, beating until well mixed.
Cook and serve
Pour the batter into a buttered teacup.
Tie it in a small cloth.
Boil for 25 minutes.
Serve hot.
For a variation, bake in a small dish at 350°F (175°C) instead of boiling.
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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 flour
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells and sets when it boils.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the corn flour thickens into a pudding.
- Egg
- Helps the pudding set and adds richness and body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding.
The step that matters
Add the egg off the heat. Egg proteins set at high heat and can curdle or scramble in a boiling mixture. Removing the pan from the heat first lets the egg blend smoothly into the thickened batter.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, flour, milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, flour, milk, sugar, egg. 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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