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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A sweet pudding made with milk, molasses, suet, eggs, Indian meal, spices, and optional fruit, boiled until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Sterrett, Laura C · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Stir enough Indian meal into one quart of boiling milk to make a moderately stiff batter.

  2. Add two well-beaten eggs, a little salt, a small cup of finely chopped suet, half a teaspoon soda, a little molasses, and a quart of whortle berries, or raisins, or no fruit.

  3. Warm a pint of molasses and a pint of milk, stir well together.

  4. Beat four eggs and stir gradually into molasse and milk.

  5. Add a pound of beef suet, chopped line, and Indian meal sufficient to make a thick batter.

  6. Add a teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg and a little gingered lemon peel, and stir all together thoroughly.

Boil and serve

  1. Dip cloth into boiling water, shake, flour a little, turn in the mixture, tie up, leaving room for the pudding to swell, and boil three hours.

  2. Boil for two hours in a bag, leaving room for it to swell.

  3. Serve hot with sauce made of drawn butter, wine and nutmeg.

  4. Serve with rich liquid sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

614Calories
41 gProtein
29 gFat
47 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)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 Sterrett, Laura C. 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Tea + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the thick batter that gives the pudding its body and firm, sliceable texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during boiling, giving the pudding structure.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep caramel flavor.
Beef suet
Adds fat that enriches the batter and keeps the pudding moist.
Milk
Hydrates the meal and adds richness and body to the batter.

The step that matters

Leaving room for the pudding to swell. The batter expands as the cornmeal starch absorbs liquid and the steam builds during boiling. If the cloth or bag is tied too tightly, the pudding can burst or turn dense and misshapen.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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

More indian pudding recipes

Baked 36Boiled 26Steamed 12Apple 8New England 4Plain 4 See all 344 →

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