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Dessert

Semolina Pudding

A custard-like dessert made from semolina, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt, baked until firm.

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 ↓

Semolina 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 semolina base

  1. Combine semolina, milk, and salt in a large pan.

  2. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to soften the semolina.

  3. Place the pan on the stove and stir until it boils.

  4. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring continuously.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Finish and bake

  1. Stir in the egg yolks and cook until thickened, but do not let it boil.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Gently fold the stiff egg whites into the mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered 1 pint pie dish.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes until firm.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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

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

  3. Semolina + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together351 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Semolina + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Semolina
Its starch swells in the hot milk, thickening the pudding into a soft body.
Milk
Forms the liquid that the semolina cooks in, giving the pudding its creamy base.
Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the custard, while whipped whites add lightness when folded in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild flavor of the milk and eggs.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the flavor of the pudding.

The step that matters

Cook the egg yolks gently and do not let the mixture boil. Egg yolk proteins set and thicken the custard as they warm. If the mixture boils, the proteins tighten too far and curdle, leaving the pudding grainy and thin.

“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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