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Dessert

Baked Indian Tapioca Pudding

A baked pudding made with tapioca, Indian meal, molasses, and milk, finished with optional egg and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Tapioca Pudding

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.

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in water for 1 hour.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil and add the soaked tapioca; cook for 15 minutes.

Make the pudding base

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the Indian meal, molasses, sugar, butter, and salt together.

  2. Add the mixture to the thickened milk and cook until it thickens, stirring often.

  3. Once cool, add a slightly beaten egg if desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 3 hours at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve with cream.

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

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

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca
Swells and thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
Indian meal
Adds thickening and a grainy texture to the molasses mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into the pudding.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark colour and a deep caramel-like flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Egg (in the method)
Adds richness and helps bind the pudding as it sets.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture until it thickens. Starch needs to gelatinise fully in hot liquid to thicken properly. Stirring often prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste.

“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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