Name: Kafir Corn Yeast Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups Kafir corn meal; 3 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 2 cups water; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 yeast cake (or 1 cake if haste is an object) dissolved in 1 cup lukewarm water; 2 tablespoons butter, lard, or other fat; Wheat flour (about 1 cup)

Why it works: Corn and wheat 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 ↓

Kafir Corn Yeast Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 cups Kafir corn meal
3 teaspoons coarse sea salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 yeast cake (or 1 cake if haste is an object) dissolved in 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons butter, lard, or other fat
Wheat flour (about 1 cup)

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 mash

Cook the Kafir corn meal, sugar, salt, and water together in a double boiler for 1 hour.
Add the butter and let it cool.

Make the dough

Stir in the dissolved yeast mixture.
Add enough wheat flour to make a soft dough.
Turn the dough onto a board and mold thoroughly.

Rise and bake

Form into a loaf and place in a warm area to rise.
When light, bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Kafir corn meal: Forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its base flavour and texture.
Yeast: Produces gas as it ferments, so the dough rises and becomes light.
Wheat flour: Adds gluten, giving the soft dough enough structure to hold its shape.
Butter or lard: Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light before baking. Yeast needs a warm, sheltered spot to produce gas and expand the dough. Baking before it is light traps less gas, so the loaf comes out dense.

“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.

Cornbread345 recipes

Wheat Bread65 recipes

Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes

Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes

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Kafir Corn Yeast Bread