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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A baked cornmeal pudding with milk, sugar, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the cornmeal base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Slowly stir in the cornmeal and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.

  3. Add the butter and molasses, stirring until melted.

Mix and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs lightly.

  2. Add the sugar and spices to the eggs, then pour in the hot milk mixture, stirring well.

  3. Stir in the raisins.

  4. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1 hour.

  5. Serve with cream.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cornmeal
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and a coarse, spoonable texture.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the custard so it holds its shape when sliced and served.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark color, along with a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the eggs set into a custard.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and smoother texture in the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Add the hot milk to the eggs gradually. Pouring hot milk into beaten eggs too quickly, or without stirring, can scramble the eggs and leave lumps. Stirring well while adding it keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, molasses, butter, egg, raisin, 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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