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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a large pot, combine the milk, molasses, Indian meal, salt, and butter.
Stir well until all ingredients are mixed.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a flat baking dish.
Bake for 4 hours on the top shelf of the oven.
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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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the cornmeal absorbs and the custard base that sets as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, deep color and a caramel-like flavor during the long bake.
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal that swells as it cooks, thickening the mixture and giving the pudding its body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture.
The step that matters
Long, low bake. Cornmeal needs slow, steady heat for hours to swell and set into a soft pudding. Baking too hot can dry the surface or curdle the milk before the center firms.
“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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