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 ↓
Baked Corn
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
Cut the kernels from the corn cobs.
In a bowl, mix the corn, egg, melted butter, sugar, salt, and sweet milk.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its sweet, tender body.
- Egg
- Sets during baking to give the custard-like mixture its structure.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies liquid that cooks into a soft, custardy texture around the corn.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours. Egg proteins need sustained gentle heat to set fully. Too hot or too short a bake can leave the center loose or the surface overcooked.
“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 baked corn recipes
You might also like
Corn Fritters203 recipes
Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes
Green Corn Soup46 recipes
Cornmeal Gruel41 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.