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Dessert

Indian Pudding with Apples

A baked pudding made from sweet milk, molasses, apples, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mackay, L. Gertrude. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Scald two quarts of sweet milk, stir in a cup of cornmeal until the mixture thickens.

  2. Remove from the fire, add one and one-sixth cups of molasses, one teaspoon of salt, one-half teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon, and two cups of sweet apples pared, cored and quartered.

  3. Pour into a deep pudding dish and bake for four hours.

  4. When the pudding has baked for one and one-half hours, add, without stirring, one pint of cold milk.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream and sugar or syrup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

320Calories
9 gProtein
9 gFat
55 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mackay, L. Gertrude. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal (in the method)
Thickens the scalded milk into a soft, set pudding body.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep caramel flavor.
Sweet apples
Add moisture and fruity sweetness that softens as the pudding bakes.
Cold milk
Added partway through baking, it stays on top and creates a creamy layer.

The step that matters

Adding the cold milk without stirring. Stirring in the cold milk would mix it through the baking cornmeal and break up the layered texture. Leaving it undisturbed lets it settle and cook gently on top.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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