Name: Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients: 2 oz. tapioca; 3 eggs; 1 oz. butter; 1 pint milk; 2 oz. sugar; A little grated lemon rind; A dust of salt

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Tapioca 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 base

Put the tapioca, salt, and milk into a saucepan and simmer slowly for 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake the pudding

Add the sugar, lemon rind, egg yolks, one egg white, and butter, then pour into a buttered dish.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes, or until set.

Top and serve

Whip the remaining egg whites and sweeten with 2 teaspoons of sugar, then spread on top of the pudding.
Make the surface rough with a fork, dust with sugar, and return to the oven for 15 minutes.
Serve with cream.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca: Thickens the milk as its starch swells and gelatinises during simmering.
Eggs: Set the custard as proteins coagulate, and whipped whites give the topping structure.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that the tapioca cooks and thickens in.
Butter: Adds richness and a softer, rounder mouthfeel to the pudding.
Sugar: Sweetens the pudding and helps the sugared topping brown in the oven.