Name: Indian Pudding with Apples
Ingredients: ½ cup corn meal; 2 cups milk; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 cup cold water; ¾ cup molasses; 2 cups boiling water; 4 apples; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; cinnamon (for sprinkling)

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Indian Pudding with Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix corn meal, salt, and cold water in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into boiling water and boil for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and add milk, beaten egg, molasses, and sliced apples.
Pour into a greased baking dish and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Swap the apple

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

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