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Dessert

New Bedford Pudding

A steamed or baked pudding made with flour, cornmeal, eggs, milk, molasses, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

New Bedford Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Scald the cornmeal with some of the boiling milk.

  2. Stir in the flour, salt, molasses, and well-beaten eggs.

  3. Slowly add the rest of the milk, which should be slightly cooled.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a well-buttered pudding dish at 350°F (175°C) for 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Serve with cold butter or sauce.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, custard-like pudding as it bakes.
Cornmeal
Scalding softens the grains, giving the pudding body and a slightly grainy texture.
Flour
Adds structure so the pudding holds together rather than turning loose and wet.
Molasses
Provides sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavor, and helps the pudding brown as it bakes.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that cooks the grains and eggs into a moist, tender pudding.

The step that matters

Scald the cornmeal with boiling milk. Hot liquid swells and softens the cornmeal starch before baking. Adding cold or unscalded cornmeal leaves the grains gritty and the texture 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.

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