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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A sweet cornmeal pudding made with milk, cinnamon, syrup, currants, and eggs, baked or steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the Indian meal with the cold boiled rice.

  2. Heat the milk with the cinnamon stick in a double boiler.

  3. Stir in the meal mixture.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Add the syrup and currants or Sultanas.

  6. Cover and let sit overnight.

Bake and serve

  1. In the morning, add the beaten eggs and mix well.

  2. Pour into a greased mold or pudding bag, leaving room for expansion.

  3. Boil or steam for 5 hours.

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. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + syruptop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together990 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cinnamon + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Cornmeal thickens the pudding and gives it its coarse, grainy body.
Eggs
Eggs bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Milk
Milk supplies liquid and richness, and its proteins help give the pudding a creamy texture.
Syrup
Syrup adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavour.
Cold boiled rice
Rice adds body and softness, helping the pudding hold moisture and stay tender.

The step that matters

Pour into a greased mold or pudding bag, leaving room for expansion. Cornmeal and rice swell as they absorb liquid and the pudding rises during long steaming. Without headroom the mold can overflow or burst the bag, and a tightly sealed or ungreased mold can make the pudding stick and tear when turned out.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cinnamon, syrup, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cinnamon, syrup, 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.

More indian pudding recipes

Baked 36Boiled 26Steamed 12Apple 8New England 4Plain 4 See all 344 →

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