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 ↓
Baked Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Pour the hot milk over the cornmeal in a mixing bowl.
Add the molasses and butter, then mix well.
Stir in the beaten egg until fully combined.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, stir in the boiling water.
Continue baking for an additional hour.
Serve warm with cream.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens into a soft custard.
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the milk as it bakes, giving the pudding its body and grainy texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and darkens the pudding as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it set into a sliceable custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
The step that matters
Stir in the boiling water after 2 hours. Adding the water partway through baking loosens the thickened cornmeal mixture so the pudding stays moist. Adding it too early or skipping it can leave the texture dense and dry.
“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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