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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, corn starch, egg yolks, sugar, topped with sweetened whipped egg whites, baked and served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Beat together the milk, corn starch, egg yolks, and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute.

  3. Pour the pudding into a dish and let it cool.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff in a separate bowl, then sweeten to taste.

  2. Spread the sweetened egg whites over the top of the pudding.

  3. Brown the pudding in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  4. Serve cold.

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding, which thickens into a custard.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the pudding its body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set with a smooth, rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and the meringue topping.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that browns in the oven to form the topping.

The step that matters

Bringing the custard to a boil while stirring. Corn starch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan. Stopping early leaves the pudding thin.

“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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