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 ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs lightly.
Mix the beaten eggs with the sour milk or buttermilk and cornmeal.
Melt the butter and add it to the mixture.
Dissolve the baking soda in a small portion of the milk and add it to the mixture.
Beat the mixture hard.
Bake
Pour the batter into a pan and bake at 400°F (200°C).
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the bread and gives its characteristic coarse texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in a small portion of the milk and add it to the mixture. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed in promptly, because it reacts with the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk right away. Uneven distribution leaves pockets of bitter soda and uneven rising, and gas released before baking is lost.
“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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