Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Baked Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the mixture
Combine milk and Indian meal in a pot to make a thick mush.
Boil until thoroughly scalded, then set aside to cool.
Once cool, add beaten eggs, sugar or molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.
Bake and serve
Fill a 2-quart baking dish with cold milk.
Combine the milk with the mixture.
Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until a crust forms.
Stir the crust into the pudding.
Add raisins and butter.
Serve with a liquid 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks with the meal and custard into a soft, moist pudding.
- Indian meal
- Its starch thickens the milk into a mush and gives the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding structure and a custard-like firmness.
- Sugar or molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and molasses also adds color and moisture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, which softens the texture and carries flavor.
The step that matters
Boil the milk and meal until thoroughly scalded. Cornmeal starch only swells and thickens fully when it is heated thoroughly. Undercooked meal leaves the pudding grainy and raw-tasting.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, butter. 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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