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Plain Indian Pudding

A baked pudding made from Indian meal, milk, molasses, eggs, and optional suet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Plain Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald the Indian meal with boiling water until thoroughly wet.

  2. Add the cold milk, molasses, salt, and eggs to the mixture.

  3. If desired, mix in chopped suet.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours.

  3. After 30 minutes, stir from the bottom to prevent thickening.

  4. Serve warm with butter.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,879 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Cornmeal that thickens the custard as it absorbs liquid and sets during baking.
Eggs
Set the custard during baking, giving it a firm, sliceable body.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and darkens the pudding as it bakes.
Milk
Provides the main liquid, giving the pudding its moist, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Stirring from the bottom after 30 minutes. Cornmeal settles and thickens quickly as it stands in hot liquid. Stirring from the bottom keeps the meal suspended so the pudding bakes evenly rather than forming a dense layer at the base.

“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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