Name: Spoon Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup coarse meal; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 pint scalded milk; 1 egg; 1 cup cooked rice; 1 tablespoon oleomargarine; 1 teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Spoon Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Scald the meal with the milk.
Add the oleomargarine, salt, and well-beaten egg.
Mix in the cooked rice.
Add the baking powder.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
Serve with a spoon.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + ricetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,350 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coarse meal: Scalding it with milk swells the starch, giving the batter body and a soft, spoonable structure.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps set the structure as it bakes.
Milk: Adds moisture and hydrates the meal so the batter becomes smooth and pourable.
Cooked rice: Adds bulk and a tender, moist texture to the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the oven, helping the batter rise and turn light.
Oleomargarine: Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.

“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.