Name: Steamed Indian Meal Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup corn meal; ½ cup finely chopped suet; ½ cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon salt; ⅓ cup molasses; 2 teaspoons ginger

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 ↓

Steamed Indian Meal Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix corn meal, molasses, suet, and ginger in a bowl.
Dissolve baking soda in sour milk and add to the mixture.
Beat well until combined.
Pour into a well-buttered mold.
Steam for four hours.
Serve with lemon or molasses sauce.

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.

Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together412 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,519 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).