Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Tapioca Cream Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the tapioca overnight.
Make the pudding
In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.
Add the soaked tapioca, sugar, and beaten egg yolks to the boiling milk.
Stir in the flavoring.
Just before removing from heat, fold in the beaten egg whites.
Cool
Pour into a dish and let cool.
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.
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Tapioca
- Thickens the milk as it cooks and gives the pudding its soft, chewy body.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks enrich and thicken the custard, while whites folded in at the end add lightness.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca swells in and the eggs set into a creamy custard.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds body to the cooked mixture.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites are added just before removing the pan from heat so they warm gently and set lightly without deflating. Adding them too early or cooking too long can make the pudding grainy or cause the whites to lose their airy texture.
“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.
More tapioca pudding recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.