Why it works: Arrowroot and milk work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 817 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
Citp of Arrowroot
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the arrowroot base
In a small basin, mix 2 teaspoons of arrowroot with 2 teaspoons of cold milk to form a smooth paste.
In a small saucepan, heat ½ cup of cold milk until it boils.
Pour the boiling milk over the arrowroot paste, stirring continuously until smooth.
Add the eggs and bake
If making Arrow-root Pudding, let the mixture cool slightly, then add the yolks of 2 eggs and mix well.
Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff, then gently fold them into the arrowroot mixture.
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.
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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Arrowroot + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together817 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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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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Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 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
- Arrowroot
- Starch that thickens the hot milk into a smooth, silky base.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the arrowroot thickens and the eggs set within.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and help set the pudding; whipped whites add lightness and structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the mild, starchy base.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling milk over the arrowroot paste. Arrowroot starch thickens only when hot, and it can clump if not stirred constantly while the boiling milk is added, so keep stirring until the mixture is smooth.
Swap the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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