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Bombay Pudding

A fried semolina pudding served with lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Semolina and lemon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bombay Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Cook the semolina in the milk until it forms a stiff paste.

  2. Spread the paste on a plate.

  3. Smooth the paste with a knife to cool.

  4. Once cold, cut the paste into four pieces.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip each piece in the beaten egg.

  2. Fry the pieces in oil until brown.

  3. Serve hot with lemon sauce.

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. Semolina + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Semolina + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Semolina + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together316 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

Semolina
Thickens with milk into a stiff paste that sets firm when cooled, giving the pudding its shape.
Milk
Cooks with the semolina to form the paste and adds moisture and richness.
Egg
Coats the pieces so they brown and form a crisp outer layer when fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the paste fully before cutting. Semolina paste must cool and firm up completely; if cut while warm it stays soft and tears or falls apart when dipped and fried.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (semolina, milk, egg, sauce):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against semolina, milk, egg, sauce. 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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