Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Corn Pudding
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
Scrape the corn from the cobs.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and whites separately.
Make the batter
Mix the sugar, flour, salt, and pepper with the butter.
Combine the corn, egg mixture, and milk.
Bake
Pour into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
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.
-
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).
-
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Supplies the main body, natural sweetness and a tender texture.
- Eggs
- Set into the custard and give the pudding its structure.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and the liquid that the eggs set into custard.
- Butter
- Adds richness and softens the texture of the pudding.
- Flour
- Lightly thickens the mixture so it holds together when baked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and rounds out the flavor of the corn.
The step that matters
Baking time and temperature. Eggs set as they heat, so the pudding can turn watery or curdled if overbaked. Bake until the centre is just set and the edges are firm, then remove it from the oven.
“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 corn pudding recipes
You might also like
Corn Fritters203 recipes
Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes
Green Corn Soup46 recipes
Cornmeal Gruel41 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.