Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding base
Heat the milk in a saucepan.
Stir in the Indian meal mixed with a little cold milk.
Let it boil for 2 minutes.
Finish and bake
Once cooled, add the molasses, suet, egg, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.
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.
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,928 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and structure.
- Egg
- Egg proteins set during baking, helping the pudding firm up into a sliceable texture.
- Molasses
- Adds deep sweetness and a dark color, along with its characteristic robust flavor.
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat, contributing moistness and a tender mouthfeel to the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and that sets into the custard.
The step that matters
Stirring in the Indian meal. Cornmeal added to hot milk can clump if not mixed in smoothly, which is why it is first blended with a little cold milk. Cooking it while stirring lets the starch gelatinize evenly and thicken the mixture without lumps.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, egg, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, egg, cinnamon. 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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