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Dessert

Togus Pudding

A steamed pudding made from Indian meal, flour, sweet and sour milk, molasses, salt, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Togus Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the Indian meal, flour, sweet milk, sour milk, molasses, salt, and baking soda together until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a covered dish.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 3 to 4 hours, or for 2 hours if you prefer a softer pudding.

  2. Serve with cream and sugar.

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.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Indian meal
Cornmeal provides the main body and structure of the pudding as it steams.
Flour
Adds additional structure so the pudding holds its shape when set.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, helping the pudding rise and turn tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk and molasses to release gas that lightens the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color and flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time in a covered dish. Steaming gently and fully cooks the cornmeal starch and sets the pudding. Keeping the dish covered holds in moisture and steam, so the pudding does not dry out or become unevenly cooked.

“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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