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Dessert

Milk Puddings

A steamed semolina pudding made with milk, sugar, egg yolk, and flavoring.

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 ↓

Milk Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the semolina base

  1. In a small saucepan, bring the semolina and milk to a boil, then simmer until soft.

  2. Pour the mixture into a basin, add the sugar, and let it cool slightly.

  3. Beat the egg yolk with a fork and mix it into the cooled semolina; add the flavoring.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a basin or tin mold thoroughly, then pour in the mixture.

  2. Grease a double piece of kitchen paper, twist it over the top of the basin or mold, and steam slowly for 30 minutes, adding boiling water if needed.

  3. If using a basin, steam for 45 minutes.

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
Thickens the milk as it simmers, giving the pudding its soft, set body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the semolina swells in and sets into a custard-like texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches the pudding and helps it set into a tender, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens its flavor.

The step that matters

Steam slowly with the cover in place. Gentle, steady steam heats the pudding evenly so it sets without becoming rubbery or boiling over. Adding boiling water as needed keeps the steam going for the full time.

“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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