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.
Make the custard base
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal with cold water until smooth.
Add the cornmeal mixture, molasses, egg, and salt to the scalded milk.
Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.
Bake
Remove from heat and pour into a baking dish.
Add the cold skimmed milk to the mixture.
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 8 hours.
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 mixture as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and a dark, rich flavour.
- Egg
- Helps set the pudding and gives it a firmer texture.
- Milk
- Forms the main liquid and, once baked, gives a creamy texture.
The step that matters
Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened. Cornmeal can scorch or form lumps if heated too fast or left unstirred. Gentle heat with constant stirring lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the milk smoothly before baking.
“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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