Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: half pint of white corn meal into a pint of hot milk; one pint meal; one pint sour milk; half teaspoon salt; one pint warm water; one teaspoon soda; one pint buttermilk; one teaspoon salt; one tablespoon melted lard; one pint hot milk stir one scant cup meal till it thickens; one tablespoon butter; one pint corn meal; quarter teaspoon soda; half pint hot water; one teaspoon lard on griddle; one teaspoon lard; one quart of meal; one cup of cracklings; a pint of hot milk; four eggs well beaten; four eggs; one table- spoon melted lard; two eggs; one scant cup meal till it thickens; four whites beaten stiff; one egg; half teacup buttermilk; 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).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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

Corn meal: Forms the thick body of the batter once cooked into a mush.
Eggs: Whites beaten stiff and folded in give the bread lift and a light, airy crumb.
Milk: Cooked with the meal to make a smooth mush that adds moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives lift. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter, while stirring hard would deflate it and leave a denser bread.

“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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

How We Cook in Tennessee