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Dessert

Steamed Semolina Pudding

A steamed pudding made from milk, semolina, butter, sugar, and citrus rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Steamed Semolina Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the semolina and keep stirring for about five minutes.

  3. Add the butter and sugar, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes to cool.

  5. Add the grated orange rind or lemon or other flavoring.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a mold well and pour in the pudding mixture.

  2. Cover with buttered paper and steam for one hour.

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

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

  2. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Sugar + semolinatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together351 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + semolinatop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Forms the thick body of the pudding as it cooks and absorbs the milk.
Milk
Hydrates the semolina and supplies the liquid that turns it into a soft, creamy set.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the finished pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to its soft texture.
Orange rind or lemon
Adds aromatic citrus oils that flavour the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring the semolina into the boiling milk. Semolina added to hot milk can clump if not stirred constantly, leaving lumps. Continuous stirring for about five minutes keeps the starch dispersed and gives a smooth, evenly thickened texture.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, semolina, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, semolina, butter. 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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