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 ↓
Indian 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.
Make the pudding
Scald the meal in the milk.
Add sugar, eggs, and salt, and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 2 hours.
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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base and, as it heats and bakes, gives the pudding its creamy body.
- Cornmeal
- Scalding it in the milk swells the starch, thickening the pudding as it sets.
- Eggs
- Coagulate during baking, giving the pudding structure and a set, custard-like texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the baked pudding its browned, caramel-like flavor.
The step that matters
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 2 hours. Baking low and slow lets the eggs set gently without curdling or becoming rubbery, and lets the cornmeal finish thickening so the pudding stays creamy rather than watery or grainy.
“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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