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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A sweet custard made with caramelized sugar, milk, corn starch, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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. In a saucepan, combine white sugar and brown sugar.

  2. Heat on the stove, stirring until the mixture turns brown.

Make the custard

  1. In another saucepan, heat the milk until it simmers.

  2. Mix the corn starch with a little cold milk to dissolve.

  3. Add the dissolved mixture to the simmering milk.

  4. Stir until thickened.

  5. Add the caramel mixture and vanilla flavoring.

  6. Pour into a mold and let cool.

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. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set pudding as it heats.
White sugar
Melts and browns to form the caramel flavor and sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds deeper caramel flavor and color when heated to brown.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and carries the thickened custard.

The step that matters

Stir until thickened. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved in cold milk before it meets the hot milk, and the mixture must be stirred while it heats. Stirring keeps starch granules dispersed so they swell evenly and thicken the custard without lumps.

“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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