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 ↓
Tapioca Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the custard
Soak the tapioca in enough water to cover it for at least 3 hours.
Boil the soaked tapioca with 1 quart of milk in a tin bucket set in boiling water.
Add 1 cup of sugar and a little salt.
After boiling for 10 minutes, stir in the beaten yolks of 3 eggs.
Remove from heat.
Stir rapidly for 5 minutes.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Pour the beaten egg whites over the top.
Sprinkle sugar over the egg whites.
Brown in the oven.
Serve cold with cream.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Tapioca
- Swells as it cooks, thickening the milk into a creamy custard body.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness as they set gently with the milk.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that forms a light, airy topping that browns in the oven.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca cooks in and becomes the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and caramelizes on the egg white topping as it browns.
The step that matters
Stir rapidly after adding the egg yolks. Stirring keeps the egg yolks moving so they blend evenly and cook smoothly instead of curdling or forming lumps as the custard thickens off the heat.
“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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