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Dessert

Colonial Indian Suet Pudding

A suet pudding made with cornmeal, raisins, molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, baked slowly.

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 ↓

Colonial Indian Suet Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Stir the cornmeal slowly into the scalded milk.

  2. Add the ginger, cinnamon, creamed suet, raisins, molasses, and salt in the order given.

  3. Beat the eggs until thick and light, then add them to the mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cold water and cold milk over the top without stirring.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

  3. Serve with Hard Sauce or cream and sugar.

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. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cinnamon + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the thick body of the pudding as it absorbs liquid and sets while baking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a moist, tender texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep caramel-like flavor.
Scalded milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and gives the base its creamy body.

The step that matters

Pour the cold liquid over the top without stirring. The cold milk and water are meant to sit on the surface so the pudding forms a layered, custardy base while the cornmeal bakes. Stirring would mix them in and change the texture.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cinnamon, raisin, molasses, 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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