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I Stewed Corn

A simple stewed corn dish cooked with milk or cream, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

I Stewed Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Remove the kernels from the corn cobs using a large sharp knife.

  2. Scrape the cobs to extract any remaining corn.

Cook

  1. Place the corn in a saucepan with just enough water to prevent burning.

  2. Boil for about 20 minutes.

  3. Add the milk or cream, cold butter, pepper, and salt.

  4. Boil for an additional 10 minutes.

  5. Serve hot in a vegetable dish.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Green sweet corn
Provides the main body of the dish, softening as it simmers into a tender, sweet base.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, creating a creamy texture as the corn cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich flavour, helping the sauce become smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Adding the milk or cream and butter. Boiling dairy vigorously for a long time can cause it to separate or scorch on the pan base. Keeping the water low and stirring helps the milk stay smooth and the sauce creamy.

“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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