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 ↓
Baked Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding
Boil the sweet milk in a pot.
Thicken the milk with the cornmeal, stirring constantly.
Add the molasses or brown sugar, butter, egg, and nutmeg or cinnamon, mixing well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour or at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 hours until curdled like an over-baked custard.
Serve warm or cool with syrup or sauce.
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.
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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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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the egg sets into a custard.
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the hot milk and gives the pudding its body and grainy texture.
- Egg
- Sets during baking, binding the pudding into a custard-like texture.
- Molasses or brown sugar
- Adds sweetness, deep flavor, and brown color to the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister texture.
The step that matters
Thickening the milk with cornmeal. Cornmeal added to hot milk clumps and can scorch on the bottom of the pot if not stirred constantly. Continuous stirring disperses the starch so the milk thickens smoothly.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, butter, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, butter, egg. 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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