Why it works: Milk and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,243 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Boiled Corn Meal Pudding, Without Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In a large pot, bring 1 quart of milk to a boil.
Stir in 1½ cups of sifted Indian meal and 1 teaspoon of salt.
Add 1 cup of molasses, ½ cup of chopped suet, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
Tie the mixture tightly in a cloth, leaving room for it to swell.
Boil for 4 hours.
Serve
Serve with sweet sauce.
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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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal forms the body of the pudding, setting into a firm, starchy crumb as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
- Suet
- Adds fat that enriches the texture and keeps the pudding moist as it cooks.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
- Boiling milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and gives the pudding a soft, creamy base.
The step that matters
Tie the mixture tightly in a cloth, leaving room for it to swell. Cornmeal and baking soda expand as the pudding cooks. Enough room prevents the cloth from bursting, while a tight wrap keeps the pudding dense and well shaped.
“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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