Name: Baked Indian Pudding
Ingredients: 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon; 1 heaping teaspoon allspice; a little nutmeg; 1 cup cornmeal; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup brown sugar; ½ cup butter or suet; 2½ quarts milk; 4 eggs

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Indian Pudding

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.

Prepare

Scald the milk in a saucepan.

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, molasses, brown sugar, and butter or suet.
Add the scalded milk to the mixture and stir well.
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then mix them into the batter.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set and golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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: Forms the thick body of the pudding as it absorbs liquid and sets when baked.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set firm while adding richness and structure.
Milk: Provides the main liquid that hydrates the cornmeal and makes a creamy custard-like texture.
Molasses: Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and a caramel-like flavor as the pudding bakes.
Butter or suet: Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth mouthfeel in the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Scalding the milk. Heating the milk before mixing helps the cornmeal hydrate and thicken evenly, so the pudding sets smoothly instead of lumpy.

Swap the allspice

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

Clovefits about as well
Allspicethe original
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, nutmeg, molasses, sugar, butter, milk, egg. 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.