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Dessert

Velvet Pudding

A custard-like dessert made from eggs, sugar, cornstarch, milk, and topped with a meringue and a sauce of egg yolks, sugar, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Velvet Pudding

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Velvet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the pudding base

  1. Beat the egg whites separately.

  2. Beat the egg yolks separately.

  3. Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold milk.

  4. Add the dissolved cornstarch mixture to the yolks.

  5. Boil the milk.

  6. Pour the hot milk into the yolk mixture.

  7. Remove from heat when thickened.

  8. Flavor the mixture to taste.

Top and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Beat the egg whites with ½ cup sugar until stiff.

  3. Pour the stiff egg whites over the pudding.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until slightly brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the egg yolks for the sauce.

  2. Mix the yolks with sugar, butter, and boiling milk.

  3. Heat the mixture over the fire until it reaches a boiling point.

  4. Flavor the sauce to taste.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 whites form a stiff meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and sauce, setting into a custard.
White sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the meringue topping.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when thickened. Cornstarch thickens as it heats but can break down and turn thin if overcooked or boiled too long, and egg yolks can curdle if overheated. Pulling the custard off heat as soon as it thickens keeps it smooth.

“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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