Why it works: Corn and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Roasted Green Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the husk from the green corn.
Roast
Roast the corn on a grill over a bright fire of coals, turning it as one side is done.
If using a wood fire, clean a spot in front of the fire, lay the corn down, and turn it when one side is done.
Serve
Serve the roasted corn with coarse sea salt and 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.
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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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green corn
- Is the main food, cooked directly over heat so its sugars brown and its kernels soften.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, melting over the hot corn to carry flavour.
The step that matters
Turning the corn as one side is done. Turning at the right moment lets each side char and brown evenly without burning. Turning too late scorches one side, while turning too early leaves the kernels pale and steamed rather than roasted.
“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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