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Dessert

Indian Tapioca Pudding

A baked pudding made from soaked tapioca, milk, cornmeal, egg, butter, molasses, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Indian Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the tapioca overnight.

Make the pudding

  1. In a pot, combine soaked tapioca, milk, cornmeal, egg, butter, molasses, salt, and cinnamon.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring frequently.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the cold milk.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca
Thickens the milk as it cooks and gives the pudding its characteristic chewy texture.
Egg
Adds structure and richness as it sets during baking.
Cornmeal
Adds body and thickening to the pudding base.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens and bakes into a creamy custard.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring frequently. Tapioca starch thickens as it heats and can settle or scorch on the bottom of the pot if left unstirred. Frequent stirring keeps the mixture even and prevents burnt flavor.

“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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