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 hominy in boiling milk for 30 minutes.
Beat in the egg.
Add shredded beef suet, castor sugar, and flavoring essence.
Pour mixture into a greased shallow pie dish.
Bake
Place dish in a paper bag and secure the end with clips.
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
- Provides the bulk and starchy body of the pudding as it softens in the milk.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as it bakes.
- Milk
- Softens the hominy and supplies moisture that turns the mixture into a custard-like pudding.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that enriches the texture and richness of the pudding.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and aids gentle browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Placing the dish in a paper bag before baking. The bag traps steam around the dish during the short bake, keeping the surface moist so the pudding sets evenly rather than drying or crusting too quickly. Securing the end with clips keeps that steam contained.
“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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