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 ↓
Boiled Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, chopped suet, sweet milk, eggs, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a mold or bag.
Cook and serve
Boil for 3 to 4 hours or longer.
Serve with maple sugar and cream, or a thin syrup of brown sugar with a little butter and nutmeg.
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.
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the main body of the pudding and sets into a thick, spoonable texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set as it cooks.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lightens the batter as it heats.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Boiling for a long time. Cornmeal needs prolonged, steady heat to fully soften and set. Cooking too briefly leaves the pudding gritty and loose, so keep the water at a steady boil and check that it has cooked through.
“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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