Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Canned Corn Timble
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
Put the canned corn through a meat chopper.
Beat the eggs until the whites and yolks are well mixed.
Make the custard
Add the chopped pepper, salt, black pepper, and grated onion to the eggs.
Stir in the milk.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into buttered molds and place them in a baking dish surrounded by hot water.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Corn + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,205 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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
- Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creates a tender, custard-like texture.
- Canned corn
- Provides sweetness and the main body of the custard.
The step that matters
Baking in a water bath. Surrounding the molds with hot water moderates the heat around the custard. Gentle, even heat keeps the eggs from overcooking, which would make the custard grainy or watery.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg, pepper, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg, pepper, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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