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Dessert

Semolina Pudding

Semolina pudding is a sweet custard made with milk, sugar, semolina, egg, butter, and vanilla or almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and semolina share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 93 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Semolina 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 semolina base

  1. Combine milk, sugar, salt, and butter in a clean pan. Bring to a boil.

  2. Gradually stir in the semolina, continuing to stir until it thickens.

  3. Move the pan to a cooler part of the stove and let it simmer gently for five minutes.

Finish and bake

  1. Separate the egg yolk from the white and beat the yolk.

  2. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the yolk and essence.

  3. Beat the egg white to stiff peaks and fold it into the semolina mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  5. 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. Almond + semolinatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a set, spoonable pudding structure as it cooks.
Egg
The yolk enriches and thickens the custard, while the whipped white lightens the texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the semolina swells in and cooks into a creamy pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild flavour of the milk and semolina.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg white gently into the semolina mixture. Beaten egg white holds air in a foam. Stirring it in vigorously knocks that air out, so the pudding bakes up denser and less light.

“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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