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Dessert

Boiled Indian Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, suet or butter, Indian meal, sour apples, milk, egg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Boiled Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the raisins, chopped suet or butter, Indian meal, chopped sour apples, milk, egg, and salt. Mix well until all ingredients are fully combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

  1. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.

  2. Place the pudding mold in the pot, cover, and steam for about 2 hours. Check occasionally to ensure the water does not evaporate completely.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Raisin + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the body of the pudding, thickening as it cooks and giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
Suet or butter
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds together after steaming.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the meal and sets it into a soft pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of concentrated fruit flavor.
Sour apples
Add moisture and a tart counterpoint to the sweet raisins.

The step that matters

Keeping the water topped up while steaming. Steaming for about 2 hours needs steady, gentle heat. If the pot boils dry, the mold scorches or cooks unevenly and the pudding can set poorly, so the water level must be checked throughout.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, apple, milk, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, apple, milk, 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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