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Dessert

Hominy Pudding

A baked pudding made from boiled hominy, butter or oil, milk, sugar, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Hominy Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the hominy base

  1. Boil the hominy in water until it becomes a mush or porridge.

  2. While hot, stir in the butter or oil, milk, and sugar.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil in a saucepan.

Add the eggs

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately until stiff.

  2. Stir the yolks into the saucepan.

  3. Fold in the egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned on top.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Hominy
Cooks down into a starchy mush that forms the body of the pudding.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whipped whites add lift and a lighter texture.
Butter or oil
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, helping the mixture set into a creamy pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a denser, flatter result, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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