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Dessert

Cornflour Pudding

A baked pudding made from cornflour, milk, sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Cornflour Pudding

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 custard

  1. Mix the cornflour smoothly with a little of the milk.

  2. Boil the remainder of the milk.

  3. Pour the boiling milk onto the slaked cornflour.

  4. Add half an ounce of butter and return to the saucepan.

  5. Bring to a boil again, stirring constantly.

  6. Beat the eggs well with the sugar.

  7. Remove the boiling cornflour from the heat and pour it onto the eggs and sugar.

  8. Add flavoring to taste and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a pie dish, pour the mixture in, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for twenty minutes.

  2. Sift castor sugar over the top and serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Cornflour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard as its starch swells when heated.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the pudding set as it bakes.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornflour thickens and the eggs set.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel to the custard.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil again, stirring constantly. Cornflour only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan. Stopping early leaves a thin, grainy custard.

“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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