Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Baked Indian 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.
Make the pudding
Scald 1 pint of sweet milk in a saucepan, but do not let it boil.
Moisten ½ pint of cornmeal with cold milk and stir it into the scalded milk.
In a bowl, beat 1 egg with ¼ cup sugar and ¼ pint of milk, then stir this mixture into the pudding.
Add spices to taste and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Bake
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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).
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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the thick, set body of the pudding as it cooks in the hot milk.
- Egg
- Sets the pudding during baking and adds richness and structure.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal swells in and bakes into a custard.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a softer texture and richer flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the top.
The step that matters
Scalding the milk without boiling it. Milk that reaches a boil can scorch on the pan bottom and changes how the cornmeal thickens. Heating it just until steaming gives a smooth, evenly thickened base.
“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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