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Dessert

Indian Meal Pudding

A baked pudding made with milk, Indian meal, butter, nutmeg, baking soda, molasses, egg, and apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Indian Meal Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cornmeal base

  1. Scald the milk and pour it over the Indian meal.

  2. Cook in a double boiler for 30 minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the butter, nutmeg, dissolved baking soda in cold milk, coarse sea salt, molasses, beaten egg, and sliced apples.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

  3. Serve with rum sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Nutmeg + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 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

Indian meal
Cornmeal forms the thick, starchy body of the pudding as it cooks.
Egg
Egg proteins set during baking, giving the pudding a firmer, sliceable structure.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark color, and helps the pudding brown during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Apples
Release moisture and sweetness, adding softness and fruity flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal in the double boiler. Cornmeal thickens as its starch gelatinizes with gentle heat. Cooking it too fast over direct heat can scorch the milk or leave the mixture lumpy, so a double boiler and steady stirring keep the base smooth before the other ingredients are added.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, nutmeg, molasses, egg. 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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