Name: Maize, or Indian Corn
Ingredients: 1 part maize flour; 2 parts wheat flour or meal; water

Why it works: Flour and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Maize, or Indian Corn

Ingredients

1 part maize flour
2 parts wheat flour or meal
water

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 the dough

Blend 1 part maize flour with 2 parts wheat flour or meal.
Add enough water to form a light, pliable dough.
Knead the dough until smooth.

Bake

Shape and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Maize flour: Gives the flatbread a slightly coarser, more tender crumb and a distinct corn flavour.
Wheat flour or meal: Provides gluten that gives the dough structure and a pliable, elastic texture.
Water: Hydrates the flours so gluten can form and the dough becomes pliable.

“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.