Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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.
Prepare
Soak the tapioca in water overnight.
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal with a little cold milk until smooth.
Make the pudding
Stir the cornmeal mixture, molasses, egg, and salt into the scalded milk.
Add the soaked tapioca and ice, then mix well.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.
Serve with butter or cream and sugar.
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,879 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Thickens the milk and gives the pudding its body and grainy texture.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep caramel-like flavor.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that sets into a custard-like pudding.
- Egg
- Helps bind and set the pudding as it bakes.
- Tapioca
- Adds thickening and a soft, slightly gel-like body to the pudding.
The step that matters
Mixing the cornmeal smooth before adding it. Cornmeal dropped into hot milk without first being whisked into cold liquid clumps and stays grainy, because starch granules hydrate unevenly when they meet heat directly.
“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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