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Baked Indian Pudding

A baked pudding made from Indian meal, molasses, butter, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Baked Indian Pudding

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Baked Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the pudding base

  1. In a double boiler, scald the milk until the water boils around it.

  2. Gradually stir the hot milk into the Indian meal until well mixed.

  3. Return the mixture to the boiler or a saucepan and cook, stirring, until thickened and smooth like porridge.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the molasses and salt.

Bake

  1. Butter an earthen baking pan and add the creamed butter to the mixture, beating well.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir the pudding thoroughly and bake for an additional 15 to 30 minutes, watching closely.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the thick, porridge-like body that sets the pudding's structure as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep color and a caramel-like flavor during baking.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the meal into a smooth base and moistens the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the pudding before the final bake. Stirring redistributes the settled starch and liquid so the pudding bakes evenly. Watching closely matters because the extra 15 to 30 minutes determines how firm it sets.

“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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