Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a large bowl, combine the milk, molasses, Indian meal, salt, and butter.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a flat baking dish.
Bake for 4 hours on the top shelf of the oven with the lamp low.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens into a soft, custardy pudding.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep color, and contributes to the pudding's dark, caramel-like flavor.
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal that thickens the liquid as it bakes, giving the pudding its body and structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which contributes richness and a smoother, softer texture.
The step that matters
Bake for 4 hours on the top shelf with the lamp low. Long, gentle baking lets the cornmeal slowly absorb the liquid and set without curdling or drying out. Too high heat can scorch the surface or cause the custard-like base to separate, so low, steady heat matters.
“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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