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Dessert

Vermicelli Pudding

A baked pudding made with vermicelli, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, lemon rind, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Vermicelli Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Drop the vermicelli into boiling milk and simmer, stirring gently, for 10 minutes until thick.

  2. Mix in the sugar, butter, and salt until well blended.

  3. Beat the mixture for a couple of minutes to cool slightly.

  4. Gradually add the whisked eggs and lemon rind.

Bake and serve

  1. Just before baking, stir in the brandy.

  2. Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.

  3. Top with clarified butter and sift sugar over before serving.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vermicelli
Thickens the milk as it simmers and gives the pudding its body.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the pudding into a custard-like structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the vermicelli cooks in and the custard sets from.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, tender texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly on top.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Gradually add the whisked eggs. Adding eggs slowly while stirring lets them blend in smoothly without scrambling in the hot mixture. Cooling the mixture first helps keep the eggs from curdling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, egg, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg, brandy. 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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