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Dessert

Pudding of Polenta, or Italian Flour of Maize

A baked pudding made from polenta, milk, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pudding of Polenta, or Italian Flour of Maize

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 polenta

  1. In a pot, combine polenta, milk, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1¼ to 1½ hours.

  2. Let cool slightly before turning out onto a serving plate.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Polenta
Cornmeal that thickens with heat and sets into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cools.
Milk
Liquid that cooks with the polenta to create a creamy, tender texture and rich flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother, more tender crumb.
Eggs (in the method)
Not listed in this record; omitted.

The step that matters

Stirring while the polenta thickens. Polenta can scorch on the bottom of the pot and turn lumpy if it is left unattended over heat. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the starch cooking smoothly.

“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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