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Dessert

Baked Indian Pudding

A steamed pudding made from Indian meal, molasses, milk, and orange peel, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Baked Indian Pudding

Why it works: Milk and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,696 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Baked Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a pan, mix the Indian meal with molasses and salt.

  2. Boil the milk with orange peel.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the meal mixture while stirring to prevent lumps.

Bake

  1. Grease a deep pudding pan with cream and pour in the pudding mixture.

  2. Gently pour cold milk or cream over the top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 4 to 5 hours.

  4. If the top scorches, cover it lightly with paper.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together493 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + milktop 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

Indian meal
Cornmeal thickens the milk into a soft, set pudding as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep color and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the meal cooks into a custard-like texture.
Cold milk or cream
Poured over the top before baking, it adds moisture and a softer layer.

The step that matters

Stirring the hot milk into the meal. Adding hot liquid to cornmeal while stirring keeps it from clumping into lumps, because the starch granules disperse evenly before they thicken.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, cream. 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.

More indian pudding recipes

Baked 36Boiled 26Steamed 12Apple 8New England 4Plain 4 See all 344 →

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