Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Warm the milk and molasses, then stir them together.
Beat the eggs.
Gradually stir the beaten eggs into the milk and molasses, alternating with the suet and Indian meal.
Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon peel, stirring well.
Be careful not to add too much Indian meal to avoid a heavy pudding.
Boil and serve
Dip a cloth in boiling water, shake it out, and flour the cloth slightly.
Pour the mixture into the cloth and tie it up, leaving room for the pudding to swell.
Boil the pudding for three hours.
Serve hot with a sauce made of drawn butter, wine, and nutmeg.
When cold, it can be sliced and fried.
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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Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,928 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
- Indian meal
- Thickens the batter and gives the pudding its body and structure.
- Beef suet
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Provides sweetness, depth of flavor and dark color.
- Milk
- Supplies liquid that hydrates the meal and carries the batter's richness.
The step that matters
Adding the Indian meal. Too much cornmeal makes the batter stiff, so the pudding cooks up heavy and dense instead of light. Add it gradually and keep the batter pourable.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, molasses, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, molasses, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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