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 pudding base
Scald 1 quart of milk in a pot.
In a bowl, mix the remaining milk with Indian meal, rye meal, and molasses.
Stir the mixture into the scalded milk.
Cook until the mixture thickens.
Bake and serve
Add eggs, butter, and nutmeg, and mix well.
Pour into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 3 hours.
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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Rye + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together52 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + ryetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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 meal thickens and bakes into a custard.
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal thickens the mixture as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep flavor to the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding structure and a custard-like firmness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
The step that matters
Cook until the mixture thickens. Cornmeal needs to be cooked in hot liquid so its starch swells and thickens the base. Stopping too early leaves a thin batter that will not set properly after baking.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rye, molasses, egg, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rye, molasses, egg, butter. 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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