Why it works: Beef and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Warm the milk and molasses together.
Beat the eggs and stir them gradually into the milk and molasses, then add the suet and Indian meal.
Add the powdered nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon peel, and stir the mixture hard.
Do not add too much Indian meal, or the pudding will be heavy and solid.
Wrap and boil
Dip a cloth in boiling water, shake it out, and flour it slightly.
Pour the mixture into the cloth, tie it up, leaving room for the pudding to swell.
Boil the wrapped pudding for three hours.
Serve
Serve hot with a sauce of drawn butter, wine, and nutmeg.
When cold, cut the pudding into slices and fry.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Molasses | 1 tbsp (20g) | 58 |
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.
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.
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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,879 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef-suet
- Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Provides sweetness, dark colour, and moisture, with a deep caramel-like flavour.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set as they heat, giving the pudding structure.
- Indian meal (in the method)
- Cornmeal thickens the batter as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base, supplying moisture and softness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Keep the Indian meal measure modest. Cornmeal absorbs liquid and thickens as it heats. Too much of it leaves the pudding dense and solid, because the starch sets before the mixture can stay light and moist.
“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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