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Dessert

Apple Indian Pudding

A pudding made with Indian meal, molasses, butter, ginger, nutmeg, apples, and milk, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cornmeal base

  1. Scald the milk and gradually pour it over the Indian meal.

  2. Place the mixture in a double boiler and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a deep pudding dish and add the molasses, butter, spices, and apples to the mixture.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 hours.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Ginger + appletop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Nutmeg + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Thickens the milk into a soft, set pudding as it cooks and absorbs liquid.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavor to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the meal cooks into and bakes to a custardy texture.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart, fruity contrast to the sweet, rich pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Baking in a slow oven. Long, low heat lets the cornmeal slowly swell and set while the milk thickens and gently browns. Baking too hot can scorch the bottom or curdle the milk before the pudding firms.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, ginger, nutmeg, milk):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, ginger, nutmeg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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