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 ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Add the cornmeal and cook for 12 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in the butter, eggs, sugar, ginger, and salt.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake until set.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Butter + sugartop 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).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and structure.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the eggs set.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the flavour of the cornmeal and ginger.
The step that matters
Cook the cornmeal and milk while stirring constantly. Cornmeal settles and scorches on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps it evenly suspended so it thickens smoothly without lumps or burnt flavour.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Parsleyfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, 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.
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