Name: Corn Bread, or Johnny Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon butter, suet, or lard; 3 cups cornmeal; 1 cup wheat flour (optional)

Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Corn Bread, or Johnny Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine sweet milk, sour milk, salt, baking soda, and butter.
Stir in cornmeal and wheat flour until well mixed.
Pour the batter into a greased tin.

Bake

Bake for 40 minutes or 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.

Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal: Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the bread its characteristic corn flavour and texture.
Sour milk or buttermilk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic milk to release carbon dioxide, helping the cornbread rise.
Butter, suet, or lard: Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and contributes to browning.
Sweet milk: Supplies liquid that hydrates the cornmeal and gives the batter its moisture.

The step that matters

Combining the milk with baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce carbon dioxide. Mixing it promptly into the acidic sour milk or buttermilk, then baking without delay, keeps the gas trapped so the cornbread rises well.

“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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Corn Bread, or Johnny Cake