Skip to main content
Dessert

Boiled Indian Pudding

A boiled pudding made with sour milk, eggs, cornmeal, dried fruit, and served with sweetened cream flavored with nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Boiled Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine sour milk, beaten eggs, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually sift in cornmeal until the mixture is thick, similar to pancake batter.

  3. Stir in the dried fruit.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a cloth bag and boil for one hour.

  2. For the sauce, sweeten cream to taste and flavor with nutmeg.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour milk
Provides acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas and lighten the pudding.
Cornmeal
Forms the thick body of the pudding as its starch thickens when cooked.
Dried fruit
Adds sweetness, chewy texture and pockets of fruit flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Thickening the batter with cornmeal. Cornmeal must be sifted in gradually so it hydrates evenly without lumps. The batter should be thick like pancake batter, because the starch sets during boiling and a batter that is too thin will produce a loose, soggy pudding.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, cream, sauce, sugar):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cream, sauce, sugar. 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.

More indian pudding recipes

Baked 36Boiled 26Steamed 12Apple 8New England 4Plain 4 See all 344 →

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes