Name: Steamed Indian Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup sweet milk; 1 egg; ½ cup butter or lard; ⅔ cup molasses; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 cups cornmeal; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup raisins; 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine sweet milk, egg, butter or lard, and molasses.
Mix in flour, cornmeal, baking powder, raisins, and cinnamon until well combined.

Steam and serve

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 1½ hours until cooked through.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 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

Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Cornmeal: Gives the pudding its coarse, hearty body and texture.
All-purpose flour: Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape after steaming.
Baking powder: Releases gas that lightens the batter as it heats.
Molasses: Adds deep sweetness, dark color and moisture.
Butter or lard: Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

“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.