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Dessert

Indian Tapioca Pudding

A sweet pudding made with Indian meal, molasses, tapioca, and milk, baked until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,243 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Indian Tapioca 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

  1. Mix the Indian meal, molasses, and minute tapioca in a bowl.

  2. Heat the milk and pour it over the mixture.

  3. Transfer everything to a double boiler and stir until it thickens.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  2. Bake for 1.5 hours in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

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.

  1. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Provides the main body and thickening starch for the pudding.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep caramel-like flavor.
Minute tapioca
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving a soft, set texture.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the starches and adds creaminess and richness.

The step that matters

Stirring in the double boiler until it thickens. Starches thicken as they heat in liquid, but scorching can occur on direct heat. Gentle, constant stirring over simmering water keeps the milk from catching and gives an even, smooth thickening before baking.

“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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