Name: Baked Indian Suet Pudding
Ingredients: 3 cups milk; 5 tablespoons cornmeal; 1 cup molasses; ½ cup chopped suet; ½ nutmeg, grated; 1 teaspoon ginger; ¼ teaspoon salt; Butter for greasing

Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Indian Suet 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 batter

Scald the milk.
Pour the scalded milk over the cornmeal.
Add molasses, chopped suet, grated nutmeg, ginger, and salt to the mixture.

Bake

Butter a pudding dish.
Pour 1 cup of cold milk into the dish.
Add the cornmeal mixture to the dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

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.

Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,324 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal: Thickens the milk into a set, spoonable pudding body.
Suet: Adds fat that enriches the texture and keeps the pudding moist.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and deep flavour, and helps the pudding brown.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and bakes into custard.