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Escalloped Corn

A baked corn casserole with breadcrumbs, onion, butter, milk, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Escalloped Corn

Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Escalloped Corn

Ingredients

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

  1. Cook the corn until done.

  2. If using canned corn, drain it.

  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  4. Butter a small baking dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer corn in the dish to a depth of ½ inch.

  2. Sprinkle the corn with salt and grated onion.

  3. Add a layer of whole wheat bread crumbs to a depth of 1 inch.

  4. Repeat with another layer of corn, onion, salt, and a small piece of butter.

  5. Top with another layer of bread crumbs.

  6. Pour the milk over the entire dish.

  7. Grate cheese on top before baking.

Bake

  1. Bake for 15 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + wheattop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn
Forms the main body of the dish and provides its sweet, starchy flavor.
Whole wheat bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and help form a soft, set layered texture.
Milk
Moistens the layers and, as it heats, helps the dish set into a custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and promotes gentle browning.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Pour the milk over the entire dish. Milk must soak down through the crumb and corn layers so the whole dish sets evenly; pouring it unevenly leaves dry pockets or soggy spots.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, wheat, bread, butter, milk, cheese):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, wheat, bread, butter, milk, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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