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 batter
Scald the skimmed milk in a pot.
Stir in the Indian meal while the milk is hot.
Add the molasses, salt, and ginger or cinnamon.
Transfer to an earthen dish and pour in the cold milk without stirring.
Cook
Cook in an Aladdin Pail for five hours.
Grease the dish with butter before adding the pudding.
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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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,519 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Ginger + buttertop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,152 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal swells in the hot milk and thickens it into a soft, set pudding.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, deep flavor.
- Skimmed milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal cooks into a custard-like pudding.
The step that matters
Pour in the cold milk without stirring. The cold milk is meant to sit on top while the pudding cooks below. Stirring it in would mix it through the cornmeal mixture and change the texture of the finished pudding.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, butter. 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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