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Dessert

Boiled Indian Pudding

A pudding made from sour milk, molasses, raisins, suet, baking soda, and cornmeal, boiled for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,577 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boiled Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, raisins, chopped suet, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add cornmeal until the mixture is stiff.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a cloth or pudding mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil in a pot of water for about 2 hours.

  2. Serve warm.

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 + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  3. Milk + molassestop 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

Sour milk
Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lighten the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
Cornmeal
Absorbs liquid and sets as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and firm texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and a dark color.
Suet
Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Adding the cornmeal gradually. Cornmeal thickens the batter as its starch absorbs liquid and gelatinizes with heat. Adding it slowly lets you stop once the mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape in the cloth or mold, so the pudding does not turn out loose or soggy.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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