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
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.
Make the pudding base
In a saucepan, combine 2½ pints of milk, 3 tablespoons of cornmeal, and ⅔ cup of molasses.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens.
Bake
Stir in ½ pint of cold milk, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of butter, 2 teaspoons of salt, and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for several 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.
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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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).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and a coarse, soft texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the egg sets into a custard.
- Molasses
- Adds dark sweetness and color, and a deep caramel-like flavor as it bakes.
- Egg
- Sets during baking, helping the pudding hold together in a soft, custardy structure.
The step that matters
Cooking the mixture until it thickens. Cornmeal only thickens fully when it is heated long enough to gelatinize its starch. Stopping early leaves a thin base that will not set properly in the oven, while overcooking can scorch the milk and molasses on the bottom of the saucepan.
“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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