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Dessert

Arrowroot Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, arrowroot, spices, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Arrowroot Pudding

Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Arrowroot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard base

  1. Simmer the milk with allspice, coriander seeds, and cinnamon for 10-15 minutes.

  2. Sweeten the milk with sugar and strain it through a fine sieve into a basin.

  3. Mix the arrowroot with a little cold water, stirring constantly as you add it to the milk.

  4. Once cooled, add the beaten eggs and stir until well blended.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold or dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30-45 minutes, or until set.

  3. Serve with wine sauce and top with grated nutmeg.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together166 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Allspice + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Allspice + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and arrowroot set into.
Eggs
Set on baking to give the pudding its body and structure.
Arrowroot
Thickens the milk so the pudding holds a smooth, tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the milk base.

The step that matters

Adding arrowroot to the milk. Arrowroot thickens when heated and can clump if added without constant stirring. Mixing it smoothly with cold water first and stirring as it goes in keeps the base lump-free and evenly thickened.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, allspice, cinnamon, sugar, arrowroot, egg, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, allspice, cinnamon, sugar, arrowroot, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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