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Dessert

Orange Pudding

A custard pudding flavored with orange slices and topped with browned beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Orange Pudding

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 custard

  1. Combine egg yolks, corn-starch, and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until thickened.

  3. Let the custard cool completely.

Assemble

  1. Peel and slice the oranges.

  2. Combine the sliced oranges with the sugar in a bowl.

  3. Pour the custard over the oranges and stir gently.

  4. Beat egg whites until stiff, adding a little sugar.

  5. Pour the beaten whites over the mixture.

Bake and chill

  1. Place in a 400 °F (200 °C) oven to brown the top.

  2. Chill thoroughly 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 + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Orange + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites are beaten to add lift and a light topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it a soft, creamy body.
Corn-starch
Thickens the custard as it cooks, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and draws juice out of the oranges.
Oranges
Add bright acidity and fresh flavor that cuts through the sweet custard.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Cornstarch thickens only when the custard reaches a simmer, and the egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Stirring steadily keeps the custard smooth and evenly thick.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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