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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the millet and place it in a baking dish with a crust around the edges.
Pour in enough new milk to nearly fill the dish.
Make the custard
Warm the butter and mix it with the milk, then add sugar, shredded lemon, ginger, and nutmeg.
Stir in the beaten eggs and shredded suet just before placing it in the oven.
Bake
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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
- Provides the grain body that gives the pudding its base texture as it cooks in the milk.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the milk and give the pudding a firm, custard-like structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the milk mixture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the millet softens in and the eggs set into a custard.
- Suet
- Adds fat that enriches the pudding and gives a tender, moist crumb.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs and suet. Eggs should go in just before baking so they set evenly during cooking. Stirring them in too early or letting the mixture sit can change how the custard sets.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (millet, butter, milk, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against millet, butter, milk, 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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