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Virginia Corn-bread

A sweet cornmeal batter baked in a round tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Virginia Corn-bread

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the yolks of the eggs in a two‑quart round baking tin.

  3. Heat the milk with the butter until warm.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks slightly and mix in a little of the hot milk.

  2. Sift in the cornmeal and salt, then add the remaining milk and butter.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.

  4. Set the mixture on the stove to thicken, stirring constantly to prevent lumping.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately for the best texture.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + eggtop 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

Cornmeal
Forms the body of the bread and sets into a firm, crumbly structure as it cooks.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and binding, while beaten whites trap air that lifts the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and provides moisture, and its starch helps the batter thicken.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness, moisture and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring while the batter thickens on the stove. Cornmeal starch swells when heated, so without constant stirring it clumps into lumps and can scorch on the base of the pan.

“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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