Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In the top of a double boiler, put 1 quart of boiling water and add 1½ teaspoons of salt.
In a bowl, mix 2 cups of corn meal and 1 tablespoon of flour with 2 cups of cold milk.
Slowly stir this mixture into the boiling water.
Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Place the vessel over hot water and let it cook for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent lumping.
Serve
Serve with milk or cream.
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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Corn meal
- Provides the starch and body that thicken the pudding as it cooks.
- Flour
- Adds extra thickening so the pudding sets smoothly and holds its shape.
- Milk
- Supplies liquid and richness, giving the pudding a soft, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the corn meal into the boiling water. Adding the cold milk and corn meal mixture too quickly or without stirring can form lumps, because starch clumps before it disperses. Slow addition with constant stirring lets each grain hydrate evenly.
“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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