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 says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine boiling milk, eggs, butter, cinnamon, and flour.
Add enough Indian meal to create a good batter.
Stir in baking soda.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until set.
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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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set firm when baked.
- Indian meal
- Provides the body of the pudding, thickening the batter into a spoonable mass.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to lift it and help give a lighter crumb.
- Flour
- Adds structure and thickens the batter alongside the cornmeal.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the meal and gives a custard-like moistness.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Pull the pudding once the centre barely wobbles and the edges look firm. Over-baking dries out the eggs and milk, leaving the texture grainy and tough instead of soft and creamy.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, flour):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Parsleyfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, flour. 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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