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 ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the base
Scald the milk and pour it over the cornmeal.
Stir the mixture and let it cool.
Add the rest
Add the eggs, butter, salt, and sugar.
Do not add raisins until the mixture begins to thicken.
Bake
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours.
Stir occasionally at first to prevent a custard forming on top.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 the cornmeal swells in and cooks into a pudding.
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the mixture as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and texture.
- Eggs
- Set as they heat, helping the pudding hold together with a custard-like richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Stir occasionally at first. As the custard heats, proteins at the surface can set into a skin. Early stirring keeps the mixture even and prevents that layer from forming on top.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, sugar. 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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