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Dessert

Baked Indian Pudding

A baked pudding made with sweet skimmed milk, Indian meal, molasses, apples, and cold milk added during baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Indian Pudding

Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. 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.

Make the custard

  1. Heat 1 quart of milk in a pan over a kettle of boiling water.

  2. In a bowl, mix the Indian meal, molasses, and salt until smooth, adding a little cold milk to thin it.

  3. When the milk is scalding hot, slowly pour in the mixture while stirring briskly to prevent lumps.

  4. Once thickened, stir in the apples and remove the pan from the heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a 2-quart earthen pudding pot and pour in the pudding mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

  3. Gently pour in 1 cup of cold milk; if the oven is too hot, leave the door ajar.

  4. Continue adding 1 cup of cold milk every hour or two until the quart has been used.

  5. Bake for 6 to 7 hours, then allow to set before turning out onto a dish.

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.

  1. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Molasses + appletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together970 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Thickens the milk into a soft, set pudding structure as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and rich flavor to the pudding.
Sweet skimmed milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal thickens and slowly bakes into custard.
Sweet apples
Add moisture and fruity sweetness that softens as the pudding bakes.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornmeal into the scalding milk. Cornmeal dropped into hot liquid clumps quickly unless it is stirred briskly while pouring. Mixing it first with a little cold milk thins it, so it blends smoothly and thickens evenly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses. 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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