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Dessert

Boiled Indian Pudding

A sweet cornmeal pudding flavored with molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, cooked in milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Boiled Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the pudding

  1. In a large pot, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal, stirring constantly to prevent lumps.

  3. Add molasses, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and butter.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold and steam for 2 hours.

  2. Let cool slightly before serving.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Thickens the milk into a firm, spoonable pudding as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal swells in and cooks into a custard-like texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark flavor and color.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Gradually whisking in the cornmeal. Cornmeal added too quickly or without constant stirring clumps as its starch hits hot liquid unevenly, leaving lumps that do not smooth out during simmering.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter. 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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