Name: Corn Flour, Edible Cornstarch, Corn Grits
Ingredients: 40 pounds cornmeal; 156 pounds wheat flour; 3 pounds sugar; 3½ pounds salt; approximately 123 pounds water; 2 pounds yeast; 1½ pounds shortening; milk as desired; mixture of oatmeal and wheat flour

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Corn Flour, Edible Cornstarch, Corn Grits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

Combine cornmeal, wheat flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to the dry ingredients.
Mix in shortening and enough milk to achieve desired consistency.
Incorporate the mixture of oatmeal and wheat flour as needed.

Rise and bake

Knead the dough until smooth and let it rise until doubled in size.
Shape and bake according to your preferred method.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Cornmeal: Provides the main body and corn flavour of the bread.
Wheat flour: Builds gluten structure that traps gas and gives the loaf its chew.
Yeast: Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, making the dough rise.
Shortening: Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens texture.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to expand the dough. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose structure.

“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 cornbread recipes

Steamed 78 Rye 18 Southern 15 Molasses 14 Indian 11 Virginia 11 See all 732 →

Wheat Bread65 recipes

Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes

Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes

Bread Pudding336 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The 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.

Corn Flour, Edible Cornstarch, Corn Grits