Why it works: Currant and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Hominy 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the pudding
In a large bowl, combine the boiled hominy, sugar, currants or raisins, and milk.
Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake
Bake for 1 hour or 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.
-
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Boiled hominy
- Provides the bulk and starchy body that gives the pudding its base texture.
- Milk
- Supplies liquid that, with heat, sets into a soft custard-like texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface of the baked pudding.
- Currants or raisins
- Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy bite throughout the pudding.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk. 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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