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 ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Scald 3 cups of milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix cornmeal with 1 cup of cold milk.
Make the pudding
Stir the cornmeal mixture into the hot milk and boil for 2 minutes.
Add molasses, the remaining cold milk, and cold water; mix thoroughly.
Beat in the egg and pour the mixture into a buttered dish.
Bake and serve
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1½ hours.
Serve with whipped cream.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells when heated and boiled.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the egg helps set.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, caramel-like flavor.
- Egg
- Helps the pudding set into a firm, sliceable custard as it bakes.
The step that matters
Boiling the cornmeal into the hot milk. Cornmeal starch only thickens fully when heated, and it clumps if added without stirring. Stir the cornmeal mixture steadily into the hot milk and boil for the full 2 minutes so the starch swells evenly and the pudding has body rather than lumps or a thin, grainy texture.
“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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