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 ↓
Caramel Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the caramel
Crush the lump sugar and place it in a round mold with the lemon juice.
Heat gently, stirring until it turns golden brown.
Rotate the mold to coat the sides with caramel.
Dip the outside in cold water to set the caramel.
Make the custard
Beat the egg yolks and whole eggs together in a bowl.
Bring the milk to a boil.
Pour the hot milk over the eggs while stirring quickly.
Add the caster sugar and vanilla.
Strain the mixture into the mold.
Steam the pudding for 1 hour.
Make the rice pudding and serve
Wash the rice.
Boil the rice in milk with sugar and vanilla until soft.
Dissolve the gelatin in hot milk.
Mix the gelatin with the rice and whipped cream until well combined.
Pour the rice mixture into a mold.
Once cold, turn it out.
Serve with custard and preserved fruit.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,961 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Lump sugar
- Melts and caramelises to form the golden coating and adds sweetness.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks and whole eggs set the custard, giving it structure and richness.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that thickens with the eggs into custard and cooks the rice until tender.
- Gelatin (in the method)
- Sets the rice mixture as it cools so it holds its shape when turned out.
- Lemon juice
- Its acidity helps stop the sugar from recrystallising while it caramelises.
The step that matters
Pour the hot milk over the eggs while stirring quickly. Adding hot milk gradually and stirring constantly warms the eggs gently, so their proteins set into a smooth custard instead of curdling into scrambled bits.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg, vanilla):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, vanilla. 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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