Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Baked Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
While hot, sprinkle in the cornmeal and let it boil for three minutes.
Remove from heat and let it cool slightly.
Beat in the egg, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.
Serve warm with thick 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 boils, giving the pudding its body and a soft, set texture.
- Egg
- Sets during baking, binding the custard so it firms up into a sliceable pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the egg sets.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the baked pudding.
The step that matters
Boil the cornmeal in the milk for three minutes. Cornmeal starch must be fully heated in liquid to swell and thicken. Stopping early leaves a grainy, thin pudding, and the egg added later can only set what has already thickened.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, cream):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
- Peppermintfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, cream. 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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