Why it works: Semolina and sugar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 351 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Semolina Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Soak the semolina in cold milk for 1 hour.
Boil the soaked semolina in ½ pint of milk until soft.
Dissolve the gelatin in a little water and strain it into boiling milk.
Mix the gelatin mixture with the semolina and add sugar and flavouring to taste.
Set and serve
When the cream begins to set, pour it into a wet mould.
Turn out the cream when fully set.
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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Semolina + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together351 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Semolina + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together316 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Semolina
- Forms the thick body of the pudding as its starch swells and softens when boiled.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cooked mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mould.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the semolina cooks in, giving the pudding its creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Pour into the mould at the right moment. Gelatine only sets as the mixture cools, so the cream must be thick enough to hold together but still pourable. Pouring too early or too late can leave lumps or an uneven set. A wet mould helps the pudding release cleanly when turned out.
“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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