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 ↓
Baked Corn Meal Pudding, Without Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Take a large cupful of yellow meal and a teacupful of cooking molasses and beat them well together.
Add a quart of boiling milk, some salt, and a large tablespoonful of powdered ginger.
Add a cupful of finely-chopped suet or a piece of butter the size of an egg.
Bake and serve
Butter a brown earthen pan and turn the pudding in.
Let it stand until it thickens.
As you put it into the oven, turn over it a pint of cold milk, but do not stir it.
Bake three hours.
Serve warm with hard sauce.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Ginger | 1 tsp grated fresh (2g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 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.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,519 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
-
Ginger + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,152 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yellow meal
- Forms the main body of the pudding and sets as it bakes.
- Boiling milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and creates a thick, spoonable batter.
- Cooking molasses (in the method)
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich flavor to the pudding.
- Suet
- Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender texture.
The step that matters
Adding the cold milk without stirring. Pouring cold milk over the top without stirring leaves a liquid layer that settles into a custard beneath the crust while the cornmeal sets above. Stirring would blend it through and lose that separation.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg. 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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