Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Arrowroot Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Dissolve the arrowroot in a little milk and mix it with the beaten eggs and sugar.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk.
Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Serve
Serve with cream and sugar, and add lemon for flavor if desired.
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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Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together817 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, soft custard as it heats.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help set the pudding into a creamy texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the arrowroot and eggs thicken.
The step that matters
Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Arrowroot must reach a boil to thicken fully, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the pan bottom. Eggs are also added to hot liquid, so keeping the mixture moving helps it thicken evenly without curdling.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, arrowroot, egg, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Strawberryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, arrowroot, egg, sugar, cream. 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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