Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Paste Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the base
Sprinkle tapioca into boiling milk with sugar, salt, and butter.
Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.
Mold and poach
Transfer to another saucepan and add egg yolks, additional butter, and beaten egg whites.
Pour into a well-buttered cylinder mold sprinkled with tapioca.
Poach in a double boiler until resilient to the touch.
Rest and serve
Let the pudding stand for 7-8 minutes before turning it out.
Serve with English custard, sabayon, or fruit sauce.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Tapioca
- Swells and gelatinizes in hot milk, thickening the pudding and giving it a chewy, set body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch swells in and gives the pudding its creamy moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and slightly softens the set by competing with starch for water.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a smooth texture.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the pudding and set gently with heat, giving a tender custard texture.
- Egg whites
- Add lightness and help the pudding hold its shape after cooking.
The step that matters
Poach in a double boiler until resilient to the touch. Egg proteins set at gentle heat but turn rubbery or curdle when overheated. A double boiler keeps the temperature moderate, so the pudding firms evenly without weeping or becoming tough.
“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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