Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wet the cornmeal with cold water in a bowl.
Stir in the beaten egg.
Add boiling milk, molasses, cold milk, salt, and cinnamon.
Bake and serve
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
Stir occasionally during the first hour.
Serve plain or with vinegar 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.
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 + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,928 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Egg + cinnamontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,058 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
- Forms the thick, grainy body of the pudding as it cooks and sets.
- Egg
- Adds structure and helps the pudding set as it bakes.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the cornmeal absorbs, giving a creamy, custard-like texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, color, and a deep, rich flavor.
The step that matters
Stir occasionally during the first hour. Cornmeal settles and can clump or sink while the pudding is still thin. Stirring keeps the grains evenly suspended so the texture bakes up smooth and uniform rather than dense at the bottom.
“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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