Name: Boston Corn Bread
Ingredients: one cup of sweet milk; one teaspoonful of soda; a cup of molasses

Why it works: Milk and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,243 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Boston Corn Bread

Ingredients

one cup of sweet milk
one teaspoonful of soda
a cup of molasses

Directions

Combine one cup sweet milk, two cups sour milk, two‑thirds cup molasses, one cup wheat flour, four cups cornmeal, and one teaspoon soda.
Steam the mixture for three hours.
Brown the steamed batter a few minutes in the oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

256Calories

8 gProtein

8 gFat

40 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

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 + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal (in the method): Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the bread its coarse, crumbly structure.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark color to the finished bread.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the soda to help the bread rise and keeps it tender.
Soda: Releases gas when it meets the acidic sour milk, lightening the batter.
Wheat flour (in the method): Adds some gluten structure to hold the steamed batter together.

“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.