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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A sweet pudding made with milk, cornmeal, suet, ginger, and molasses baked in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine milk, corn meal, salt, suet, ginger, and molasses.

  3. Pour the mixture into a covered baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with sweet sauce.

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 + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 thickens into a soft, custardy set as it bakes.
Corn meal
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and texture.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the pudding and keeps it moist as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma that balances the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Bake in a covered dish. Covering the dish traps moisture, so the pudding cooks gently and stays creamy instead of drying out or forming a tough surface during the long bake.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, corn, molasses):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, molasses. 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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