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Dessert

Indian Pudding

A sweet cornmeal pudding made with eggs, molasses, butter, ginger, and raisins, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and ginger work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 412 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Make a mush with fine corn meal.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix in the molasses, softened butter, and baking soda.

  3. Add ginger to taste.

  4. Stir in enough corn meal mush to create a thick batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a gem pan and preheat it.

  2. Fill the pan half full with the batter and place a raisin on top.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

  4. Serve with hard sauce flavored with ground cinnamon.

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. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine corn meal
Forms the thick mush that gives the pudding its body and structure.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, deep flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and aid rising.
Softened butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in enough corn meal mush to create a thick batter. If the batter is too thin, it will not hold its shape and may bake up watery. Stirring in mush gradually lets you judge the thickness, since corn meal thickens as it absorbs liquid and sets during baking.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg, molasses, butter, raisin):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, molasses, butter, raisin. 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.

More indian pudding recipes

Baked 36Boiled 26Steamed 12Apple 8New England 4Plain 4 See all 344 →

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