Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Ice Corn Starch Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Separate the cream from the milk and let it stand for a few hours in a cool place.
Make the custard
Mix the corn starch with a little cold skimmed milk and the beaten eggs.
In a thick saucepan, heat the skimmed milk until it boils.
Quickly mix the boiling milk with the corn starch and egg mixture, stirring smoothly.
Allow the mixture to boil once, then pour it into a wet mold or small dishes.
Set and serve
Let it cool until set, then serve with cream and powdered sugar.
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.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, sliceable pudding as it cooks and sets.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help set the pudding with the starch.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into the pudding.
The step that matters
Quickly mix the boiling milk with the corn starch and egg mixture, stirring smoothly. Starch clumps if it meets hot liquid unevenly, so adding the boiling milk quickly while stirring keeps the mixture smooth. The starch then gelatinises as it boils, which is what thickens the pudding.
“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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