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Baked Cornmeal Pudding

A baked pudding made from milk, cornmeal, butter, molasses, eggs, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Cornmeal Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cornmeal base

  1. Scald 1 pint of milk.

  2. Moisten 1½ tablespoons of cornmeal with a little cold milk.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the cornmeal and cook in a double boiler for 2 hours, stirring frequently.

Finish and bake

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of butter, ½ teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of molasses, 2 eggs, and 1 pint of cold milk.

  2. Butter a baking dish and fill it with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour, placing the baking dish in a pan of hot water.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Butter + molassestop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its structure and body.
Cornmeal
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal in the double boiler. Cornmeal must cook slowly over gentle heat while stirred so it thickens evenly without scorching or lumping. Starch needs sustained heat to swell fully, which gives the pudding its body.

“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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