Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sour milk or buttermilk, sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda.
Add cornmeal gradually until the batter is thick.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the thickness of the loaf (½ to 2 inches).
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Provides liquid and acidity that react with the baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic milk to produce carbon dioxide, helping the bread rise.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the batter and gives the bread its structure and corn flavour.
- Flour
- Adds structure, helping the batter set into a loaf as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Adding the cornmeal. The batter should be thick but still pourable. Cornmeal absorbs liquid as it sits, so adding it gradually until the batter is thick keeps the texture from turning dense or 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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