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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A baked custard with caramel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the caramel

  1. For the caramel, put 1 tablespoon of sugar in a saucepan and stir over heat until it melts and begins to burn.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of boiling water and let it boil for 1 minute.

  3. Butter four cups and fill each with caramel to a depth of 1 inch.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Mix in the sugar and milk, then stir well.

  3. Add the vanilla and mix again.

  4. Divide the egg mixture evenly between the cups.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cups in a deep pan of boiling water.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 40 minutes.

  3. If the oven is very hot, cover the cups with thick brown paper.

  4. Turn the puddings out onto individual plates to allow the caramel to escape and serve as a sauce.

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. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Set the custard and give the pudding its structure as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid and moisture that make the custard soft and creamy.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, when melted, forms the caramel sauce.

The step that matters

Baking in the water bath. Cooking the cups in a deep pan of boiling water insulates the custard so it heats gently. Too much direct heat can make eggs curdle or turn the custard rough and porous.

“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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