Why it works: Milk and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Hominy Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Soak the hominy in boiling milk for 30 minutes.
Beat in the egg.
Add the shredded beef suet, castor sugar, and flavoring essence.
Pour the mixture into a greased shallow pie dish.
Bake
Place the dish in a paper bag, fold the end securely, and clip it closed.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.
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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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Hominy
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking in milk to soften and thicken the mixture.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set as it bakes.
- Shredded beef suet
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds a little browning as it bakes.
- Milk
- Hydrates the hominy and gives the pudding a soft, creamy texture.
The step that matters
Securing the paper bag around the dish. The bag traps steam around the pudding, keeping the surface moist and gently cooking it. If the bag is not sealed well, steam escapes and the pudding can dry out or cook unevenly.
“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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