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 ↓
Small Hominy
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the hominy
Combine the hominy, salt, and milk in a saucepan.
Stir often until it boils.
Cover and boil moderately for 1 hour.
If the mixture is not stiff enough, boil uncovered until desired consistency.
Finish and serve
A few minutes before serving, beat in the cream thoroughly.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hominy
- Forms the thick body of the dish as its starch softens and thickens during boiling.
- Milk
- Cooks with the hominy to add moisture and a mild, rich base for the dish.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture when beaten in at the end.
The step that matters
Beat in the cream just before serving. Dairy cooked for a long time can scorch, separate, or turn grainy. Adding the cream near the end and beating it well keeps it smooth and evenly blended through the hominy.
“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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