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Dessert

Boiled Puddings

A custard-like pudding made with milk, cream, eggs, and vanilla, steamed and served with preserved barberries and fruit syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Boiled Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a mold or basin with butter.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the milk with the vanilla pod until just boiling.

  3. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together.

Make the custard

  1. Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, stirring briskly to prevent curdling.

  2. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, about 20 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the heavy cream.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and cover with buttered paper.

  2. Tie a cloth over the top and steam for 1 hour.

  3. Let it stand for 5 minutes before turning out.

  4. Serve garnished with preserved barberries and a rich syrup or fruit jelly.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat, giving the pudding its body.
Whole milk
Provides the liquid base of the custard, supplying moisture and a soft, tender texture.
Heavy cream
Adds fat that makes the set custard richer and smoother on the palate.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps keep the egg proteins tender as they set.

The step that matters

Gradually pouring the hot milk into the egg mixture. Adding hot milk too quickly can scramble the egg yolks. Pouring slowly while whisking briskly tempers them, so the custard thickens smoothly instead of curdling.

“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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