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Dessert

Connecticut Indian Pudding

A baked cornmeal pudding flavored with molasses and orange zest, enriched with butter and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Connecticut Indian 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. Mix cornmeal, molasses, and salt in a bowl until well combined.

  2. Heat the milk in a double boiler until scalding hot.

  3. Add the cornmeal mixture to the hot milk, stirring until free of lumps.

  4. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Grate the rind of the oranges.

  3. Layer grated orange rind on the bottom of the dish.

  4. Pour the pudding mixture into the dish.

  5. Top the pudding with the remaining orange zest.

  6. Melt the butter in the hot milk.

  7. Pour the melted butter over the pudding.

  8. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with rich cream or hard sauce.

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

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

  2. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Molasses + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together493 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Thickens the milk into a firm, spoonable pudding as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep color and flavor to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and bakes into custard.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a softer, smoother mouthfeel.
Oranges
Contribute aromatic citrus oil from the zest to the pudding's flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornmeal into the hot milk. Cornmeal added to hot liquid can clump if not whisked in steadily, leaving lumps. Stirring while adding it disperses the starch so the pudding bakes smooth.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter. 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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