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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A sweet pudding made with milk, brown sugar, corn starch, butter, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a heavy pan, add the brown sugar and heat until it browns, stirring constantly.

  2. Once browned, carefully add the hot milk and stir until the sugar dissolves.

Thicken and chill

  1. Dissolve the corn starch in a little cold milk and add it to the mixture along with the butter and salt.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

  3. Chill and serve with 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and provides its creamy body.
Dark brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel flavor when heated until browned.
Corn starch
Thickens the pudding as it heats in the liquid, giving it a set texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel to the pudding.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the caramel sweetness.

The step that matters

Browning the brown sugar. Brown sugar can go from amber to bitter and burnt within seconds, so constant stirring and close attention keep the caramel flavor balanced. Adding hot milk to very hot caramel can cause it to spatter, so add it carefully.

“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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