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Bread

West Virginia Scalded Corn Meal Bread

A cornmeal bread made by scalding cornmeal with boiling water, adding warm water, yeast, oil, salt, and egg, then baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

West Virginia Scalded Corn Meal Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Scald 1 cup of meal with boiling water.

  2. A little more meal may be used.

  3. Add warm water, yeast, oil, and dry meal.

  4. When the mixture is light, add salt and beaten egg.

Rise and bake

  1. Let rise in the dish in which it is to be baked.

  2. Bake the bread in an iron skillet or frying pan with a cover.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

533Calories
19 gProtein
6 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Cornmeal (in the method)
Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its characteristic grainy texture and flavor.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the batter light and causing it to rise.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the bread hold its shape and crumb.
Boiling water
Scalds the meal, softening the grains so they absorb moisture and bake more tender.

The step that matters

Scalding the meal. Pouring boiling water over the meal gelatinises its starch so it absorbs liquid and binds into a moist dough. Cornmeal without this softening stays gritty and dry.

“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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