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Dessert

Strawberry Corn-flour Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with corn flour, milk, sugar, eggs, butter, and strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Strawberry Corn-flour Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk, corn flour, sugar, and butter to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then beat in the eggs, reserving one egg white.

Assemble and top

  1. Butter a deep pie dish and spread about a quarter of the mixture on the bottom and sides.

  2. Place the strawberries in the center and pour the remaining mixture over them.

  3. Beat the reserved egg white with 1 teaspoon of sugar and spread it over the top.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Corn flour
Thickens the milk into a set, custard-like pudding as it cooks.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the pudding structure and richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the corn flour thickens and the eggs enrich.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer texture and smoother mouthfeel.
Strawberries
Add fresh acidity and fruit flavor that contrasts with the sweet custard.

The step that matters

Simmering the corn flour mixture. Corn flour must be brought to a boil and simmered so its starch fully cooks and thickens; under-cooked starch leaves a raw, pasty taste and a loose texture.

“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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