Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
Beat together the sugar, butter, and eggs in a separate bowl.
Add warm milk to make a stiff batter.
Bake and serve
Bake in square molds until golden brown and doubled in bulk.
Serve at once with butter.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
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).
-
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wheat flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
- Granulated corn meal
- Gives the bread its characteristic grainy texture and corn flavor.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the bread rises and becomes light.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter set and bind as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps browning in the crust.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Add warm milk to make a stiff batter. The liquid must be added only until the batter is stiff; too much milk thins the batter so it cannot hold its rise, while too little leaves dry, crumbly bread. Warm milk helps the butter stay soft enough to blend evenly.
“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 cornbread recipes
You might also like
Wheat Bread65 recipes
Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes
Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes
Bread Pudding336 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.