Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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.
Make the pudding
Stir cornmeal into 1 quart of sweet milk in a saucepan and scald for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add sugar, butter, eggs, molasses, ginger, and salt. Mix well and pour into a baking dish.
Bake
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Thickens the milk as it scalds, giving the pudding its body and grainy texture.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the pudding into a firm, sliceable custard.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, caramel-like flavor.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the eggs set.
The step that matters
Scalding the cornmeal milk. Cornmeal must be heated long enough in liquid to swell and thicken fully; if it is undercooked, the pudding can stay gritty and loose after baking.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, egg, molasses):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Clovefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg, molasses. 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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