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Dessert

Corn-flour Pudding

A steamed pudding made with corn flour, butter, milk, egg, sugar, and a pinch of salt.

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 ↓

Corn-flour Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, blend the butter and corn flour smoothly.

  2. Gradually stir in the milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then stir in the sugar.

  4. Separate the egg, adding the yolk to the corn flour mixture.

Fold and steam

  1. Add a pinch of salt to the egg white and beat until stiff.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg white into the corn flour mixture.

  3. Pour into a greased basin, cover with greased paper, and steam slowly for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Turn out gently onto a hot plate and serve immediately.

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

Egg
The yolk enriches and sets the custard, while the beaten white adds lightness and airiness.
Corn flour
Starch thickens the milk into a smooth base that holds the pudding's shape.
Milk
Liquid that hydrates the starch and gives the pudding its soft, creamy body.
Butter
Fat that adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the base.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg white gently. Stiff egg white holds air bubbles that lighten the pudding. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a dense result instead of a light, soft 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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