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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A sweet pudding made with caramel, 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; gradually add boiling water and cook until the caramel is fairly thick.

Make the custard

  1. Mix cornstarch, salt, and cold milk; gradually add to hot milk in a double boiler.

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

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

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

  5. Add the vanilla extract, 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
Caramelized to give the pudding its sweetness and deep, toasted flavor.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth, creamy pudding texture.
Milk
Forms the body of the pudding and carries the custard's creamy texture.
Egg
Adds richness and helps set the pudding as it cooks.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch mixture to the hot milk. Cornstarch clumps if it meets hot liquid without being dispersed first. Mixing it with cold milk and adding it gradually while stirring keeps the mixture smooth and lets the starch thicken evenly.

“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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