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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A cornmeal pudding made with milk, butter, egg, molasses, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and salt, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan until boiling.

  2. Stir in the cornmeal and butter, then let it cool.

Make the batter

  1. Add the beaten egg, sugar, molasses, and spices to the mixture.

  2. Mix in ½ cup of cold milk or water.

  3. Pour into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Milk
Forms the main liquid that cooks down into a creamy, custard-like texture.
Cornmeal
Thickens the milk as it cooks and gives the pudding its body.
Egg
Helps the pudding set and binds it into a sliceable custard.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.. Cornmeal needs long, gentle heat to soften fully and thicken, and the egg sets gradually. Higher heat would curdle the egg and leave the cornmeal grainy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, molasses, cinnamon, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, molasses, cinnamon, 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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