Why it works: Corn and beer share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 61 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 8Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly grease an 8-inch baking dish.
Let the cream cheese and butter sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes so they soften, then drain the canned corn well in a colander.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then add the cream cheese and stir until smooth and fully combined.
Stir in the beer and minced jalapeno and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture is hot and loosened.
Add the drained corn to the saucepan and stir for 2 minutes until evenly coated and heated through.
Spoon the creamed corn into the prepared baking dish and spread it level.
Bake for 30 minutes until bubbling around the edges and lightly golden on top, then let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Corn + beertop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together61 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Cream cheese + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Corn + jalapenotop 5% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together493 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + corntop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,333 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + beertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together680 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, butter, corn, beer):
- Gingerbetter flavor fit
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
- Jalapenothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, butter, corn, beer. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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