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 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make and bake
In a large bowl, mix the milk, Indian meal, molasses, and butter until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake for 4 hours on the bottom shelf.
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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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that sets into a soft, custardy pudding as it bakes.
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal that thickens the mixture and gives the pudding its body and grainy texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and helps the pudding brown during long baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Bake for 4 hours on the bottom shelf. Long, low baking lets the cornmeal slowly swell and the milk gently set without curdling or drying out. The bottom shelf shields the top from over-browning while the interior finishes cooking.
“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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