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Boiled Puddings

A steamed milk and egg yolk pudding flavored with vanilla.

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 ↓

Boiled Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk with the split vanilla bean until just boiling.

  2. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and gradually pour the hot milk into them, stirring briskly to prevent curdling.

  3. In another bowl, combine the cream and sugar, then mix in the egg yolk mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold or basin.

  2. Cover with buttered paper and tie a cloth over it.

  3. Steam for 1 hour until set.

  4. Let it stand for 5 minutes before turning it out.

  5. Serve garnished with preserved barberries or a rich fruit syrup.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Vanilla and sugar 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
Egg yolks set when steamed, giving the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
Whole milk
Provides the liquid base that the egg yolks thicken into a custard.
Heavy cream
Adds fat, which makes the set pudding richer and softer in texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps give it a tender texture.
Vanilla bean
Flavors the milk with aroma as it heats.

The step that matters

Stirring the hot milk into the yolks. Adding hot milk to egg yolks too quickly or without stirring can scramble the yolks into curds. Pouring slowly while whisking briskly lets the yolks warm gradually and blend smoothly, so the custard sets evenly.

“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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