Why it works: Wheat and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 537 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
Baked Corn-meal Pudding, with Eggs
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.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix cornmeal and wheat flour with cold milk.
Scald the milk in a saucepan, then stir in the cornmeal mixture and cook until thick.
Thin the mixture with cold milk to a batter-like consistency.
Add sugar, molasses, eggs, butter, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda, mixing well.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
After 30 minutes, stir the pudding thoroughly and continue baking.
Serve hot with wine sauce or with butter and syrup.
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.
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Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together537 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Cooked in hot milk, it thickens into the pudding's main body and structure.
- Wheat flour
- Adds extra structure so the pudding holds its shape after baking.
- Eggs
- Set during baking, binding the pudding and giving it a firmer texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor to the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in molasses to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
The step that matters
Stir the pudding at 30 minutes. Cornmeal is heavy and the batter can separate and settle while it bakes. Stirring redistributes the solids and liquid, giving an even texture instead of a dense bottom layer.
“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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