Name: Stewed Green Corn
Ingredients: Fresh corn; Cold milk; Butter; Coarse sea salt; Sugar (optional, for field corn); Pepper; Stock or beef broth (optional, as a substitute for milk)

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 ↓

Stewed Green Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the corn from the cob by slicing lengthwise through the center of each row of grains.
Scrape the grains free from the hull using the back and pointed end of the knife.
Place the corn in a pot and barely cover it with cold milk.
Season with butter, coarse sea salt, and sugar if using field corn.
Cover the pot and stew gently until very tender, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
Once cooked, season with pepper.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,028 recipes

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