Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: one pint of fresh sweet milk; one quart of the mixture; one-half cups of lard; one pound of flour to a loaf; three cups mush; half teaspoon salt; one tablespoon melted lard; one cup sweet milk; one cup meal; one cup dainty flour; one quart warm water; one spoonful of sugar; two cups sugar; one cup butter; one cup lard; one tablespoon salt; a small pinch of soda; a pinch of soda; two heaping teaspoons of the mush; six loaves; one cake of never failing yeast in a little more than one quart warm water; nine o'clock beat in three eggs to the batter; salt

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 ↓

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Meal: Adds body and structure to the batter, giving the loaf its crumb.
Dainty flour: Provides gluten and starch that set the loaf's structure as it bakes.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the loaf soft.

The step that matters

Stir in the meal when the mush is cool, not cold. Mush that is too hot can cook the batter and mush that is cold will not blend evenly, so the dough rises and holds its texture unevenly.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Cake	not in our table	0

How We Cook in Tennessee