Why it works: Millet and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 33 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Millet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the millet seeds and place them in a dish with a crust around the edges.
Pour in enough new milk to nearly fill the dish.
Bake
Warm the butter and mix it with the milk, then add sugar, shredded lemon, ginger, and nutmeg.
As you place the dish in the oven, stir in the beaten eggs and shredded suet.
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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Millet + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together33 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,154 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Millet + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together25 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Millet seeds
- Form the body of the pudding as they soften and thicken during baking.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the pudding.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the millet and forms the creamy base.
- Suet
- Adds fat that enriches the pudding and gives a rich, moist texture.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs and suet as the dish goes into the oven. Eggs begin to set when heated, so they should be stirred in just before baking. Stirring them in too early or leaving the mixture to sit can make the eggs unevenly distributed and the final set less even.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (millet, milk, butter, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against millet, milk, butter, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg. 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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