Well, I'd grade that experiment as about a "C" . . .

[xiphias]

I've been making puddings. (By the American definition of "pudding", which I think, in Great Britain, would be called something like "Bird's". You know, a sort of creamy, sweet non-Newtonian fluid.)

Anyway, I've got a recipe I'm using as a base, which uses sugar, cornstarch, and salt as dry ingredients, to which are added cream, milk, and eggs. With chocolate for chocolate pudding, brown sugar instead of white sugar for butterscotch, and so forth.

Now, what I've been recently doing is figuring that the fat/liquid content of the cream and milk comes out to two cups of water and one-half cup of oil. So, I've been figuring, why not just use water and oil, and emulsify it with the eggs, then use THAT with the dry ingredients?

I've done two things so far, neither of which came out perfectly, but I think I'm getting the idea of it. The first one was olive oil and rosewater, which never got thick enough, because I decided to just use the egg whites instead of using the whole egg, so I think I was too light on the proteins. And tonight's was okay but not perfect. I used a mixture of roasted peanut oil and peanut butter, to make a peanut butter pudding.

Not bad, but the texture was off -- using peanut butter as part of one's oils is always involves a bit of guesswork for me; I've never QUITE figured out the proportions. But it was interesting, at least. And not horrible.

Comments

[linenoise.livejournal.com]

As far as whites instead of whole egg, it's probably not so much the protein content as it is the phospholipids, especially lecithin. A lot of the thickening for something like that is from the emulsification, as much as the protein networks. Egg whites have nearly the same protein content as yolks, but *none* of the fats and emulsifiers.

And dammit, I *still* don't have a food icon on LJ.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

You might find one you like here, perhaps?

http://www.iconarchive.com/category/food-icons.html

[linenoise.livejournal.com]

Oooh! That is a shiny, yes, thank you.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

it would just be a custard. Bird's Custard was developed because the wife of the creator could not have eggs. People do refer to non-egg custards as 'Bird's', even when they are not, but if it has eggs, nope.

[undauntra.livejournal.com]

Isn't mayonnaise an emulsion of oil and eggs? So maybe you could start with mayo and just add water in slowly...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Mayonnaise also has other spices and flavorings, making it mayonnaise-flavored. That strongly limits the directions I could go with it -- the mayonnaise flavoring only works with sweet flavors in VERY careful balancing. I've had things where it was done successfully, but it's not something I want to experiment with yet. Not until I get the other variables nailed down.

[(Anonymous)]

Check McGee's discussion of egg yolk foams and mousses, it might offer some insight.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I love that you enjoy cooking and experimenting to create your own recipes. If you are so inclined, could you figure out a good-tasting creamy pudding that doesn't use any sugar and, perhaps, a dairy substitute. I could use the protein from the eggs in my diet, but have given up eating eggs on their own.

I have given up asking you to create a non-alcoholic, good-tasting gin. But...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

When you say, "no sugar", do you mean "no raw, refined white sugar", or do you mean "no sugar in any form"? Because I just can't work with Splenda, stevia, aspartame, saccharine, or any of the rest of them -- they just taste weird to me.

But if I can use raw sugar, agave nectar, or raw honey, I can probably work out something good if you give me a couple hours.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Using agave nectar or honey (preferably local honey with its beneficial properties to alleviate pollen allergies) would be fine. A non-sweetened pudding with spices such as nutmeg and/or cinnamon might work, also. I don't like things too sweet these days.

And what about the non-alcoholic gin? (but I've stopped asking...)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to extract botanical essences without the use of alcohol. . .

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Is there a chemist in the family?

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Ever since you posted the old fake-gin recipie, I've been thinking along the same lines (Ashni and I don't drink, although we do cook with alcohol). I would either

1) boil all of the spices and reduce the hell out of the resulting liquid, or
2) use food-grade glycerin for the extraction (this works for vanilla, but takes about twice as long as alcohol).

(Let me know if you actually end up doing this - it might get me off my ass about it.)

-Nameseeker

[fauxklore]

What we think of as pudding is pretty much blancmange, except that I think that's strictly a vanilla pudding.

To me, once you put eggs in, it becomes a custard, not a pudding.

My experience is that the British are totally confused by things like Indian pudding and grape nut pudding and other New England grain dessert thingies, though I think they might have bread pudding and rice pudding. (I know they have rice pudding in the form of kheer, but that is foreign so doesn't count.)

None of that helps you any in you experiments, however. I am learly of food experiments due to a friend from college who decided to attempt making a chocolate bar by reading the ingredients on the Hershey's label. Not having cocoa butter on hand, he just used ordinary butter. He was also the guy who, when making a cake that called for 1 cup of coffee, measure out a cup of instant coffee granules. And who had his biologist roommate spin down his wine in the centrifuge to get the yeast out of it.