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Dessert

Pudding of Polenta, or Italian Flour of Maize

A baked pudding made from polenta, milk, butter, salt, and cayenne.

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

Pudding of Polenta, or Italian Flour of Maize

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

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the polenta, milk, butter, salt, and cayenne until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until firm.

  2. Carefully turn out the pudding onto a serving plate before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Polenta
Forms the bulk of the pudding and sets into a firm, sliceable body as it cooks.
Milk
Hydrates the polenta and adds moisture and richness to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until firm. Polenta needs enough time in the oven for its starch to fully gelatinise and set. Pulling the pudding too early leaves it soft and likely to collapse when turned out.

“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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