Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
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 cornmeal base
Scald cornmeal with 1 cup of boiling water. Stir well.
Heat 3 cups of milk in a double boiler.
Stir in the cornmeal; boil until it forms a smooth gruel.
Remove from heat.
Bake and serve
Mix in 2 beaten eggs, ½ cup sugar, and spices.
Transfer to a baking dish.
Bake until thick and brown at 350°F (175°C). If it becomes too thick before done, add more milk.
Serve with whipped cream flavored with maple sugar.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the milk into a gruel that sets the pudding's body.
- Eggs
- Set the custard and add structure as the pudding bakes.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture for the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to browning in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer texture.
The step that matters
Baking until thick and brown. Baking must go long enough for the egg proteins to set and the surface to brown, but if the mixture thickens too early, adding more milk keeps it moist.
“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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