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Cornmeal Pudding

A baked cornmeal pudding with molasses, milk, eggs, raisins, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cornmeal Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Stir the cornmeal into 1 cup of the milk.

  2. Scald the remaining milk and add the molasses, sugar, salt, beaten eggs, nutmeg, and butter.

  3. Stir in the cup of milk containing the cornmeal just before adding the raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 mixture and gives the pudding its body and grainy texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich flavor during baking.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the pudding structure and a custard-like firmness.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the eggs set.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother mouthfeel.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness distributed through the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cornmeal milk before adding the raisins. Cornmeal settles quickly in liquid, so it must be well mixed into the hot milk just before the raisins go in. If it sits, it sinks and bakes unevenly, leaving a dense layer at the bottom.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, sugar, egg, nutmeg, butter, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, sugar, egg, nutmeg, butter, 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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