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Dessert

Baked Cornmeal Pudding

A baked pudding made from milk, cornmeal, butter, molasses, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Cornmeal Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Moisten the cornmeal with a little cold milk.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the cornmeal.

  4. Cook in a double boiler for 2 hours, stirring frequently.

  5. Add the butter, salt, molasses, eggs, and cold milk to the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Fill it with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  4. Place the baking dish in a pan of hot water.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Butter + molassestop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks with the cornmeal into a soft, pourable custard.
Cornmeal
Its starch thickens as it cooks in the liquid, giving the pudding body.
Eggs
Set as the pudding bakes, binding it into a firm, sliceable texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep brown color and flavor.
Butter
Adds fat, which enriches the texture and softens the pudding's crumb.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal in the double boiler. Cornmeal starch thickens as it heats and can clump or scorch on direct heat. Gentle, frequent stirring over a double boiler keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened over the long cook.

“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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