Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Macaroni Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Boil the macaroni in the milk until tender.
Combine the cooked macaroni with cream, eggs, and sugar.
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Steam
Steam the pudding for 1 hour.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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 + 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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Macaroni
- Forms the body of the pudding, giving it a soft, starchy bulk once cooked.
- Milk
- Cooks the pasta to tenderness and provides the liquid that sets into the custard.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, producing a smoother, softer texture.
- Eggs
- Set with heat to bind the pudding into a firm yet tender structure.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and contributes to its tender, browned flavour.
The step that matters
Steam the pudding gently for the full hour. Steaming heats the custard evenly; if the heat is too high or the time is cut short, the eggs can turn grainy or the centre may stay loose and unset.
“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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