Why it works: Milk and arrowroot work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 817 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Arrowroot Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the custard base
Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl.
Boil the milk with the sugar in a saucepan.
Mix the arrowroot with the cold milk, then pour it over the boiling milk.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then beat in the eggs.
Cook
Transfer to a basin, cover tightly, and boil for 20 minutes.
Alternatively, bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.
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.
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Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together817 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Egg + milktop 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 + arrowroottop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and enrich its texture as they set with heat.
- Arrowroot
- Starch that thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, glossy pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the arrowroot thickens and the eggs set into.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the set texture of the pudding.
The step that matters
Pour the arrowroot slurry into the boiling milk. Arrowroot must be fully dispersed in cold liquid before heating, otherwise it clumps. Stirring it in as the milk boils lets the starch gelatinize evenly into a smooth thickened base.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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