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Dessert

Baked Corn Meal Pudding

A baked pudding made from cornmeal, molasses, milk, sugar, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 ↓

Baked Corn Meal Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Stir cornmeal into cold milk.

  2. Add the mixture to scalded milk.

  3. Mix in sugar, molasses, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and beaten eggs.

  4. Pour into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Pour the extra ½ cup of cold milk over the pudding.

  3. Bake for 2 hours in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) without stirring.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Corn meal
Provides the body of the pudding as its starch thickens and sets during baking.
Scalded milk
Supplies most of the liquid and creates a soft, creamy texture.
Eggs
Set as they bake, binding the pudding into a custard-like texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color and flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during long baking.

The step that matters

Bake without stirring. Stirring once the mixture is in the dish disturbs the forming structure as the eggs and cornmeal set, which can leave the pudding uneven or watery. Keeping it still lets the custard set evenly.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, molasses, milk, cinnamon, sugar, 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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