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 ↓
Tapioca Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare and cook the pudding
Soak the tapioca in water overnight.
Drain the tapioca and add it to a pot with the milk and sugar.
Boil for 30 minutes.
Stir in the egg yolks and boil for 5 more minutes.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until stiff and spread on top.
Brown the pudding in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + 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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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
- Tapioca
- Swells during soaking and boiling, thickening the milk into a pudding texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca thickens into a creamy custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds body to the cooked base.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help set and thicken the pudding as they cook.
- Egg whites
- Whipped stiff and spread on top, they form a light topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg yolks and boiling. Egg yolks thicken and enrich the pudding, but if they are added carelessly or the mixture boils too hard it can curdle or turn grainy. Keep the heat steady and stir constantly while the yolks cook.
“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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