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 ↓
Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix Indian meal with milk to form a thick batter.
Add salt and melted butter to the batter.
Beat the egg yolks until thick and light, then mix them into the batter.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the mixture.
Flour the currants and stir them into the batter.
Prepare the bag
Dip the pudding bag in water, wring it out, and flour it well.
Turn the bag inside out.
Pour the batter into the bag.
Tie the bag securely, leaving room for expansion.
Boil and serve
Place the bag in a pot of boiling water and add more boiling water as needed to keep it covered.
Boil the pudding for three hours, ensuring it remains boiling.
Briefly immerse the bag in cold water.
Untie the bag and turn the pudding out onto a dish.
Serve immediately with any sweet sauce.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites trapped by folding add lift, while yolks enrich the batter and give it a tender set.
- Indian meal (cornmeal)
- Forms the thick batter body that sets into the pudding's structure as it cooks.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture and softness to the batter.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
- Currants
- Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Keep the bag fully submerged while boiling. If the water level drops and the bag is exposed, the pudding cooks unevenly and can dry or develop a crust at the exposed part. Adding boiling water keeps heat steady and even around the bag.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, egg, flour. 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.
More cornmeal pudding recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.