Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Scald the milk in a pot.
While the milk is hot, stir in the Indian meal, suet, and salt.
Let the mixture cool, then beat in the egg yolks, sugar, and cinnamon.
Finally, fold in the beaten egg whites.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered mold, leaving room for it to swell.
Place the mold in a pot of boiling water, almost up to the top, and boil for four hours.
Turn out the pudding and serve hot with sauce.
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.
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon 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
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal thickens the hot milk into a firm, sturdy pudding body.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whipped whites lighten the set pudding.
- Milk
- Scalded milk hydrates the cornmeal and forms the moist base of the pudding.
- Powdered suet
- Fat adds richness and a tender, moist texture to the steamed pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds a little caramel-like depth during long cooking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter's acidity to help it rise and lighten as it steams.
The step that matters
Leaving room in the mold for the pudding to swell. Cornmeal batter expands as it steams and gases form. Filling the mold too full can cause the pudding to overflow or become dense and uneven.
“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.
More indian pudding recipes
You might also like
Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes
Cinnamon Cake42 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.