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Steamed Corn Bread

A steamed bread made from cornmeal, flour, butter, sour milk, molasses, salt, baking soda, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Steamed Corn Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the baking soda with a little of the sour milk until smooth.

  2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and beat until thoroughly mixed.

  3. Butter a 2-quart basin and pour in the batter.

Steam and bake

  1. Steam the batter for 2½ hours.

  2. After steaming, bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve warm.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Provides the main body and corn flavour of the bread.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together after steaming.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the bread rises.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep colour to the crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

The step that matters

Mixing the baking soda into the sour milk first. Baking soda only releases gas when it meets an acid. Dissolving it fully in part of the sour milk before combining helps it react evenly through the batter, so the bread rises without pockets of soda or a bitter taste.

“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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