Why it works: Arrowroot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 159 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Arrowroot Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
In a small bowl, mix the arrowroot with 1 tablespoon of milk until smooth.
In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk to a boil.
Pour the boiling milk over the arrowroot mixture and stir quickly until thickened.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks using a dry knife.
Once the arrowroot mixture has cooled slightly, stir in the yolks one at a time.
Add the sugar and gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
Grease a small pie dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Arrowroot + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together159 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, nutmeg, butter, egg):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, nutmeg, butter, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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