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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Scrape the corn from the ears.
In a bowl, rub the egg yolk with the flour.
Add the milk or cream, butter, salt, sugar, and pepper to the egg yolk mixture.
Bake
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg white.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) until nicely browned.
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.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the pudding.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the batter and helps it set into a custard-like texture.
- Egg white
- Beaten stiff and folded in, it lightens the mixture and helps it rise.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter and gives the pudding structure as it bakes.
- Milk or cream
- Adds moisture and richness, helping the pudding stay tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg white. Stiffly beaten egg white traps air that gives lightness. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps those air bubbles intact so the pudding rises and stays tender instead of dense.
“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.
More corn pudding recipes
You might also like
Cornmeal Griddle Cakes24 recipes
Corn Breakfast Cakes20 recipes
Delicate Cake246 recipes
Boiled Frosting69 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.