Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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 base
Scald the sweet milk in a pot.
Stir in the cornmeal while the milk is boiling, then cook for a few minutes.
Let the mixture stand until nearly cold.
Mix and bake
Add the molasses, beaten eggs, butter, ginger, salt, and cinnamon.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 hours.
After 30 minutes, stir in the cold milk.
Serve with hard sauce.
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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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,928 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 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 into a soft, spoonable pudding as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding structure and a custard-like body.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and deep color, and moisture to the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat, giving the pudding richness and a smoother texture.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and the eggs set.
The step that matters
Stir in the cornmeal while the milk is boiling. Cornmeal added to cold or lukewarm milk clumps and stays grainy. Adding it to boiling milk while stirring constantly lets the starch disperse and thicken evenly.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, egg, butter, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, egg, butter, cinnamon. 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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