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Dessert

Indian Tapioca Pudding

A sweet pudding made from milk, tapioca, Indian meal, sugar, molasses, ginger, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Indian Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Stir in the tapioca and Indian meal mixture.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes or until thickened.

  4. Remove from heat and add sugar, molasses, salt, and ginger.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 hour and serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
Forms the creamy liquid base that the thickeners set into a pudding.
Minute tapioca
Its starch swells when heated, thickening the pudding as it cooks.
Indian meal
Adds starch that thickens the pudding and gives it a grainy body.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the salty and spiced flavors.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Tapioca and Indian meal thicken only when their starches are heated and swell. Stop cooking once the mixture is thick, since the pudding firms further as it cools and sets.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, 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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