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Dessert

Millet Pudding

A baked millet pudding made with milk, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Millet Pudding

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

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. Wash the millet seed.

  2. Place it in a dish with a light crust around the edges.

  3. Pour in enough new milk to nearly fill the dish.

  4. Add sugar, pounded lemon, and nutmeg to taste.

Bake

  1. Just before baking, stir in the yolks and whites of the eggs, well frothed.

  2. Mix everything smoothly and bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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.

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.

  1. Millet + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Millet + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together25 recipes

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

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Millet seed
Forms the body of the pudding as it cooks and softens in the milk.
New milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the millet and creates a creamy, custard-like texture.
Eggs
Set the pudding as they cook and add richness; frothed whites lighten the texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring in the frothed eggs just before baking. Whipped egg whites hold air, and they deflate if left standing or overmixed. Adding them at the last moment and mixing gently keeps the pudding light before the heat sets the egg proteins.

Swap the millet

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Milletthe original
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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