Why it works: Milk and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
A Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Bring the milk to a boil.
In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk until smooth.
Stir the cornstarch mixture and sugar into the boiling milk.
Cook for 2-3 minutes until the starch is thoroughly cooked.
Let the mixture cool completely.
Finish and serve
Flavor with sherry or your choice of flavoring.
Just before serving, gently fold in the beaten egg whites until smooth.
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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Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,479 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk as its starch cooks, giving the sauce body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the flavor.
- Egg whites
- Fold in for a light, airy texture when beaten.
The step that matters
Cooking the cornstarch mixture. Cornstarch must be cooked fully after the boiling milk is stirred in, or it stays chalky and fails to thicken properly. Stirring it in smoothly first prevents lumps.
“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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