Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. 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.
Prepare the batter
Stir the Indian meal into the scalding milk carefully to avoid boiling.
Add the cold milk, wheat flour if desired, molasses, and chopped apples if using.
Bake
Mix well and bake in a preheated oven at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.
Alternatively, mix all ingredients and place in the oven without scalding the meal, stirring when it begins to bake.
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 + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Wheat + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together205 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal swells and thickens as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and set.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base, providing moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, deep flavor, and a darker color as the pudding bakes.
The step that matters
Stirring the meal into the scalding milk. Adding cornmeal to hot milk while stirring keeps it from clumping, since the starch disperses evenly before it thickens. Letting the milk boil or the meal settle can leave lumps or scorching on the bottom.
Swap the apple
The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, wheat, flour, molasses):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, wheat, flour, molasses. 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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