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Dessert

Vermicelli Pudding

A sweet pudding made with milk, vermicelli, egg, butter, and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Vermicelli Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the pudding

  1. Crush the vermicelli.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. Stir in the vermicelli.

  4. Let it boil gently, stirring frequently until thick.

  5. Stir in the sugar, butter, and a few drops of flavouring.

  6. Add the egg and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour into a buttered pie dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the top is brown.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Vermicelli
Its starch thickens the milk as it simmers, giving the pudding body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the vermicelli cooks in and thickens.
Egg
Sets during baking, binding the pudding into a soft, sliceable custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir the pudding while it thickens, then mix in the egg well. Gentle, frequent stirring stops the milk scorching on the base of the pan and lets the vermicelli starch thicken evenly. Mixing the egg in thoroughly spreads it through the batter so it sets smoothly in the oven instead of leaving streaks.

“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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