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Dessert

Indian and Apple Pudding

A baked pudding made with Indian meal, molasses, milk, apples, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Indian and Apple Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mush

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler until it boils.

  2. Gradually pour the boiling milk over the Indian meal.

  3. Return the mixture to the double boiler and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often.

  4. Add the molasses, butter, salt, ginger, nutmeg, and apples to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Butter a deep pudding dish.

  2. Pour the mixture into the dish.

  3. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 3 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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 milk into a firm, grainy pudding body as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark color that browns during the long bake.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the cornmeal absorbs and slowly sets during cooking and baking.
Apples
Add moisture and tart fruit flavor that softens into the pudding during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the cornmeal in the double boiler. Cornmeal must be stirred often while it cooks, or it can scorch or form lumps. Gradually adding the boiling milk helps the meal hydrate evenly without clumping, so the base bakes smoothly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, butter, ginger, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter, ginger, nutmeg. 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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