Why it works: Nutmeg and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓
Indian Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the cornmeal base
Stir the cornmeal carefully into the boiling milk, letting it fall slowly through your fingers to avoid lumps.
Let the cornmeal cook in the boiling milk for about 5 minutes.
Assemble and bake
Beat the eggs and mix them with the cold milk.
Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.
Add the cold milk and beaten eggs last.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 2 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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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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 + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White cornmeal
- Thickens the milk as it cooks and gives the pudding its body and grainy texture.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding structure and a custard-like firmness.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the cornmeal swells in and that the eggs set into a custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to browning at the surface during the long bake.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and carrying flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring the cornmeal into the boiling milk. Cornmeal dropped in slowly while the milk is boiling disperses before its starch swells, which prevents lumps. Adding it all at once or into cooler milk lets clumps form that stay in the finished pudding.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, butter, nutmeg. 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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