Name: Baked Indian Pudding. Cheap and Good.
Ingredients: 2 quarts of milk; ½ pound of corn meal; 2 ounces of butter or minced suet; 6 ounces of molasses; 1 teaspoon of ground ginger; 5 eggs; ¼ teaspoon of salt

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 ↓

Baked Indian Pudding. Cheap and Good.

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the mush

Make mush with 3 pints of the milk.

Mix and bake

Add the remaining cold milk and the other ingredients.
Mix well and pour into a greased baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about half an hour.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together412 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal: Provides the main body, as its starch thickens the milk into a pudding when cooked.
Eggs: Set during baking to give the pudding structure and a firm, custard-like texture.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, deep color and a rich, caramel-like flavor.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that hydrates the corn meal and keeps the pudding moist.
Butter or minced suet: Adds fat, which contributes richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Ground ginger: Adds warm, spicy aroma that balances the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Making the mush with part of the milk. Corn meal starch only thickens properly when cooked in hot liquid, which swells the granules and prevents lumps. Cooking it first gives the pudding its body before the eggs and other ingredients are added.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original
Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, butter, molasses, egg. 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.

More indian pudding recipes

Baked 36 Boiled 26 Steamed 12 Apple 8 New England 4 Plain 4 See all 344 →

Ginger Cookies213 recipes

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Ginger Cake93 recipes

Corn Cake90 recipes

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Baked Indian Pudding. Cheap and Good.