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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A sweet cornmeal pudding made with milk, molasses, spices, and egg, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the custard

  1. Heat 1 cup of milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add 2 rounded tablespoons of yellow cornmeal, stir, and boil for 3 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of molasses, 1 cup of cold milk, 1 beaten egg, ½ teaspoon of ground ginger, a pinch of cloves, a pinch of cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Mix well and pour into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow cornmeal
Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the pudding its body and structure.
Egg
Sets during baking, helping the pudding hold together once cooled.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the egg sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color along with a rich, caramel-like flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the cornmeal in milk. Cornmeal must boil long enough to swell and thicken the milk before the egg and other ingredients are added. Stirring keeps it from scorching and lumping, which gives the pudding an even, smooth texture.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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