Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Baked 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.
Scald the milk in a pot, then stir in the cornmeal until it thickens to half the consistency of mush.
Remove from heat and add molasses, salt, spices, suet, cold milk, and beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 4 hours.
When the pudding forms a crust, add the raisins one by one.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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 mush that gives the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep caramel flavor.
- Suet
- Adds fat that enriches the texture and moistens the pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the eggs set.
The step that matters
Adding the raisins at the crust stage. Raisins added at the start would sink and scorch or become tough over four hours of baking. Waiting until a crust forms keeps them suspended and plump near the top.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, egg):
- Orangefits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits about as well
- Vanillafits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, egg. 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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