Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Plymouth Indian-meal Pudding
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 oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a large bowl, mix cornmeal, molasses, and salt.
Pour boiling milk over the mixture and add Cottolene, cold milk, and cold water.
Bake
Transfer mixture to a well-greased pudding dish that holds at least three quarts.
Bake very slowly for 7 to 8 hours without stirring.
If the pudding bakes too quickly, cover it with a plate.
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 + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,879 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yellow cornmeal
- Forms the thick body of the pudding as its starch sets during slow baking.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep color, and helps the pudding brown during long baking.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and gives the pudding its creamy, tender texture.
- Cottolene
- Adds fat that softens the texture and contributes richness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Bake very slowly without stirring. Cornmeal starch needs long, gentle heat to swell and set into a custardy texture. Fast heat can scorch the bottom or dry the top, and stirring breaks the forming structure.
“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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