Why it works: Milk and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Baked 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 pudding base
Boil the milk in a pot.
Gradually stir in the Indian meal and molasses, then let it cool.
Assemble
Butter a high brown earthen pan.
Add the chopped suet and salt to the pan, then pour in the pudding mixture.
Stir well to mix the suet with the pudding, then add the cold milk.
Do not stir again.
Bake
Bake for 5 hours at 350°F (175°C).
If using a brick oven, bake for 8 hours or overnight.
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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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + beeftop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together606 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
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal thickens the milk into a set, spoonable pudding as it bakes.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the bake sets.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, deep color and a caramel-like flavor during the long bake.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that enriches the texture and moistens the pudding as it bakes.
- Cold milk
- Poured on top without stirring, it creates a looser layer that bakes into a custardy top.
The step that matters
Do not stir again after adding the cold milk. Stirring after the cold milk is added breaks up the layering, so the pudding bakes unevenly instead of forming a soft, custardy top over a thicker 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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