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Dessert

Hasty Pudding

A simple pudding made from Indian meal thickened in water, seasoned with salt, and served hot with molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,123 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hasty Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

  2. Gradually stir in enough Indian meal to thicken the mixture.

  3. Continue stirring constantly until it reaches the right consistency.

  4. Reduce heat and let it cook slowly for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Add salt while cooking.

  6. Pour the mixture into a dish that has been wet with cold water.

  7. Let it cool, then cut into slices.

Brown and serve

  1. In a greased skillet, brown the slices on both sides.

  2. Serve hot with molasses.

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. Butter + molassestop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 boiling water into a firm mass that sets as it cools.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, slightly bitter flavour to the finished pudding.
Butter or oil
Greasing the skillet keeps the slices from sticking and helps them brown.

The step that matters

Stirring in the Indian meal. Adding the meal too fast into boiling water can form lumps that stay dry inside. Adding it gradually while stirring constantly gives a smooth mixture that thickens evenly.

“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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