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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A sweet dessert made by caramelizing sugar and combining it with milk, cornstarch, egg, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Melt the sugar to caramel, then gradually add the boiling water and cook until the caramel is fairly thick.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the cornstarch, salt, and cold milk, then gradually add this mixture to the hot milk in a double boiler.

  2. Stir constantly; as the mixture begins to thicken, add the caramel.

  3. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

  4. Add the well-beaten egg and cook for 5 minutes longer.

  5. Add the vanilla, pour into a serving dish.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill and serve with cream and sugar.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sugar
Melts into caramel, providing the pudding's sweetness and its brown color and flavor.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
Milk
Forms the base of the pudding, providing moisture and creaminess.
Egg
Adds richness and helps set the custard as it cooks.

The step that matters

Adding the caramel as the mixture thickens. Caramel added to thick, hot starch can clump or separate unevenly, so stirring constantly while adding it keeps the pudding 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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