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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A custard pudding flavored with caramel and vanilla, steamed in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Boil the loaf sugar and cold water in a saucepan until it turns light brown.

  2. Pour the caramel into a charlotte or plain timbale mold, coating the inside by turning the mold.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and whites.

  2. Add the castor sugar, flavoring, and milk.

  3. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

  4. Strain the custard into the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold with greased paper.

  2. Steam very slowly for about 40 minutes.

  3. Carefully turn out the pudding.

  4. Serve with the caramel sauce that runs off when inverted.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 and whites set the custard into a sliceable, tender pudding as it steams.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and a soft, creamy texture.
Loaf sugar
Melted and browned into caramel, it forms the golden sauce and adds a deeper, bittersweet flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar and water until light brown. Sugar goes from clear to caramel quickly and can burn; stop at light brown, because darker caramel turns bitter and the sauce that runs off will taste harsh.

“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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