Name: Hominy Grits
Ingredients: 1 pint boiled hominy grits, cold; 2 eggs, well beaten; 1 small piece of butter; boiled milk, enough to make a moderately thin mass

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 ↓

Hominy Grits

Ingredients

1 pint boiled hominy grits, cold
2 eggs, well beaten
1 small piece of butter
boiled milk, enough to make a moderately thin mass

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the cold boiled hominy grits with the beaten eggs, butter, and enough boiled milk to achieve a moderately thin consistency.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake

Bake for 30 minutes.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hominy grits: Provides the bulk and starchy body that the dish sets around.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the mixture to a thin, pourable consistency.
Butter: Adds richness and fat for a softer, more tender texture.

“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.