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 ↓
Indian Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Beat the eggs until very light.
Mix the eggs alternately with the sour milk and corn meal.
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 other ingredients.
Beat the mixture well and bake in a hot oven 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.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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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
- Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter together.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
- Fine corn meal
- Forms the body of the bread and gives it its grainy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the bread.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in a small portion of the milk and add it to the other ingredients.. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed evenly so it reacts with the acid in the sour milk and leavens the batter uniformly. Clumps can leave bitter or uneven pockets in the bread.
“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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