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Dessert

Baked Corn Starch Pudding

A baked pudding made with corn starch, milk, sugar, eggs, topped with jelly and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Baked Corn Starch Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, and butter, then heat until boiling.

  2. In a small bowl, mix corn starch with a little cold milk until smooth, then stir into the boiling milk.

  3. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the beaten yolks of the eggs thoroughly.

Bake and top

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15-20 minutes.

  2. Remove from the oven and spread the jelly or jam on top.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar and spread over the pudding.

  4. Return to the oven until the meringue is delicately browned.

  5. Serve cold with sweetened 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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. 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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats and cooks.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard; whites whip into the meringue topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the starch thickens.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, as powdered sugar, stabilises and sweetens the meringue.
Jelly or jam
Adds a fruity sweetness and acidity that contrasts with the rich custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the starch into the boiling milk. Cornstarch clumps if added to hot liquid unmixed. Mixing it with cold milk first lets the granules disperse, and constant stirring while cooking keeps the custard smooth as the starch gelatinises and thickens.

“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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