Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Spoon 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.
Make the batter
Stir the cornmeal and salt into the boiling water.
Add the buttermilk and baking soda, mixing well.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
Serve immediately.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + buttermilktop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,674 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + buttermilktop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the cornbread its characteristic texture and flavor.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce carbon dioxide, lifting the batter as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness, flavor, and a golden crust.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking soda and buttermilk start lifting the batter as soon as they meet, so the batter should go into the oven promptly. Baking until golden brown sets the crumb and develops browning, and underbaking leaves it gummy in the centre.
“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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