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Coen Beead

A sweet cornmeal cake with lard, sour milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ithaca (N.Y.) First Baptist Church. Ladies Union · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Coen Beead

Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Coen Beead

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat 1 egg.

  2. Add 1-3 cup white sugar and 1 tablespoon of lard; cream all together.

  3. Mix 1 cup of sour milk, into which is put 1 even teaspoon of soda; beat until foamy.

  4. Then add to the first mixture 1 cup of cornmeal, 2 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Bake about 30 minutes.

Combine the rest

  1. Combine half cup of cornmeal, 1 cup of graham flour, 1 egg, a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

  2. Add enough milk to make a batter.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

846Calories
27 gProtein
27 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Ithaca (N.Y.) First Baptist Church. Ladies Union. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda to help the batter rise.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas that lifts the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the bread together.
Cornmeal
Gives corn flavor and a coarser, crumbly texture.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and moist.

The step that matters

Mixing the soda into the sour milk. Soda reacts with the acid in sour milk and releases carbon dioxide right away. Beat it in, combine the batter promptly, and bake without delay so the gas is trapped and the bread 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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