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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A baked dessert made from milk, cornmeal, suet, ginger, molasses, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine milk, corn meal, salt, chopped suet, ginger, and molasses, and mix well.

  2. Pour into a covered baking dish.

  3. Bake for 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with sweet sauce.

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 + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Thickens the milk as it bakes, giving the pudding its body and a soft, spoonable texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the corn meal thickens and that gives the pudding its custard-like richness.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and color, and a deep flavor that shapes the pudding's character.
Chopped suet
Adds fat that enriches the texture and keeps the pudding moist during the long bake.

The step that matters

Baking in a covered dish for 3 hours. Cornmeal needs long, gentle heat to swell and soften fully. The cover traps moisture so the pudding sets evenly without drying out at the surface.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, corn, molasses):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, molasses. 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.

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