Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Meringue Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the custard
Combine sugar, milk, and egg yolks in a saucepan to make a custard.
Dissolve corn starch in a portion of milk, then stir into the boiling custard, stirring constantly until smooth.
Top and bake
Beat the reserved egg whites until stiff, sweetening to taste.
Pour the pudding into a dish, spread the beaten egg whites on top, and bake at 400 °F (200 °C) until browned.
Serve with cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk custard so it sets into a smooth, sliceable pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they form the airy topping that bakes to a golden brown.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and enrich the custard, adding richness and body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch thickens.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and stabilizes the whipped egg white topping.
The step that matters
Stirring the starch into the boiling custard. Cornstarch must be stirred constantly as it heats so it gelatinizes evenly; otherwise it can clump, leaving lumps instead of a smooth, thick custard.
“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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