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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A sweet pudding made by caramelizing sugar, then combining with milk and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and water. Boil until it starts to caramelize.

Make the custard

  1. In another pot, heat the milk until boiling.

  2. Dissolve corn starch in a little cold milk, then add to the boiling milk.

  3. Once both mixtures are boiling, stir them together until well mixed.

Serve

  1. Pour into a mold and serve with whipped cream.

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

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

  3. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

Sugar and milk 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

Sugar
Caramelizes to form the amber flavour and colour of the pudding and sweetens it.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and supplies its creamy body.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the pudding its set and firm texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch mixture into the boiling milk. Cornstarch must be dissolved in cold milk first so it does not clump. Once it meets the hot milk, it thickens quickly, so stir well to keep the texture smooth.

“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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