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 ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Mix sour milk, corn meal, flour, sugar, and salt.
Let the batter stand overnight.
Add eggs, melted butter, and baking soda dissolved in water.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a hot, greased pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.
Cut into squares and serve hot.
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.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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
- Corn meal
- Forms the main body of the bread and gives it its characteristic grainy texture.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release carbon dioxide, helping the bread rise.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the bread sets.
- Flour
- Adds gluten-forming structure that helps hold the crumb together with the corn meal.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for moisture and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Pouring into a hot, greased pan. A hot, greased pan starts the crust setting and browning right away, so the bread releases cleanly and forms a golden edge rather than sticking or baking pale.
“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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