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Grits Pudding

A steamed and baked pudding made from grits, water, milk, egg, sugar, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Grits 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 grits

  1. In a pudding pan, combine the grits, boiling water, and salt.

  2. Cover and steam over boiling water for 45 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the sweet milk.

Bake

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg, sugar, melted butter, and pepper together, then mix this into the grits thoroughly.

  2. Transfer to the oven and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until browned.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Grits
Form the bulk of the pudding and absorb liquid to give it a thick, soft body.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and browning on the surface.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the grits and helping the pudding set.

The step that matters

Mixing the egg into the grits. Beaten egg must be blended thoroughly into the warm grits so it distributes evenly. Unmixed egg can leave streaks or pockets of set protein, giving an uneven texture.

“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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