Why it works: Milk and tea work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 738 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Scald the Indian meal in a pot.
Add molasses, milk, and additional milk.
Stir in raisins and eggs.
Add spices to taste.
Boil the mixture for 4 hours.
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 + teatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tea + raisintop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together64 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Forms the thick body of the pudding as it cooks and absorbs liquid.
- Molasses
- Adds deep sweetness and a dark color with a robust flavor.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that the cornmeal absorbs and softens during cooking.
- Eggs
- Help bind the pudding and add richness and body as they set.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture for 4 hours. Cornmeal needs prolonged cooking in liquid to fully soften and thicken. Stopping early leaves the texture grainy and loose, and the eggs may not set properly.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, tea, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, tea, 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.
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