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 ↓
Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a pot.
Stir in 1 cup cornmeal, ½ cup flour, and 1 teaspoon salt.
Add 1 pint milk and boil for 1 hour.
Fifteen minutes before serving, stir in 1 tablespoon butter.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cornmeal
- Gelatinizes in boiling liquid and thickens the pudding into a set, spoonable body.
- Flour
- Adds starch that helps thicken the pudding and gives it a firmer structure.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and richness, softening the cornmeal and adding a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and rich flavor when stirred in near the end.
The step that matters
Stir in the cornmeal and flour. Dry starches clump when dropped into hot liquid. Stirring them in steadily as the water boils keeps them dispersed, so each grain hydrates and thickens evenly instead of forming lumps.
“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.
More cornmeal pudding recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.