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 ↓
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.
Prepare
Combine scalded milk, Indian meal, ginger, and salt in a bowl and let it stand for 20 minutes.
Stir in molasses, eggs, and butter until well mixed.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Ginger + walnuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together737 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,832 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,236 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yellow indian meal
- Cornmeal that thickens the milk and gives the pudding its body as it bakes.
- Scalded milk
- Forms the liquid base and, with the meal, sets into a soft custard-like texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard when baked.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, slightly bitter depth of flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Letting the milk and meal stand before adding the rest. Cornmeal needs time to hydrate and swell in hot liquid, which helps it thicken evenly. Adding the molasses and eggs too early can leave the batter uneven and the texture grainy.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, egg, butter, walnut):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, egg, butter, walnut. 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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