Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Farina Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the farina
Boil 3 pints of milk (or 1 quart of water).
Slowly add 4 large tablespoons of farina while boiling.
Continue to boil slowly for 30 to 60 minutes.
Make the custard and bake
While cooling, beat 4 eggs and mix with ½ pound of sugar.
Stir in 1 quart of cold milk and add to the warm farina.
Add spices and salt to taste, then bake.
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.
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 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).
Milk and sugar 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
- Farina
- Thickens the milk into a soft, spoonable pudding as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding structure and a custard-like body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the set texture of the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the main liquid that the farina swells in and the custard is built on.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs to the warm farina. If the egg mixture is added too hot, the eggs can scramble; tempering with cold milk first and adding it gently to the warm farina helps keep the custard 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.
More semolina 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.