Name: Milk Puddikgs
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; 1 cup cornmeal; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup chopped suet; 1 tablespoon ginger; ½ cup molasses

Why it works: Ginger and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Milk Puddikgs

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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make and bake the pudding

In a large bowl, combine milk, cornmeal, salt, suet, ginger, and molasses.
Pour the mixture into a covered baking dish.
Bake for 3 hours.

Serve

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.

Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,519 recipes

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

Cornmeal: Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and grainy texture.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens into a soft pudding.
Suet: Adds fat that enriches the pudding and keeps it moist and tender as it bakes.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and helps brown the top of the pudding.
Ginger: Adds warm, spicy aroma that balances the sweetness of the molasses.