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Bread

Egoless Corn Bread

A quick, egg-free cornmeal bread baked in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Egoless Corn Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift together the corn meal, salt, and baking powder (or baking soda).

Mix and bake

  1. Dissolve the sweetening in the milk and add it to the sifted dry ingredients.

  2. Add the melted shortening and beat well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased shallow tin.

  4. Bake for 25 to 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.

  1. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the cornbread its characteristic texture and flavor.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cornbread to rise and turn lighter.
Milk
Hydrates the corn meal and adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and helps keep it moist.

The step that matters

Beat in the shortening well. Beating distributes the melted fat evenly through the batter, so the crumb bakes tender rather than patchy or dense. Baking powder begins releasing gas once wet, so the batter should go into the tin and the oven without long delay to keep the rise.

“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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