Name: Corn Bread Loaf
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 eggs; ½ cup sugar; 1 heaping tablespoon solid butter; 2 cups rich sweet milk

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Mix salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar with flour and cornmeal.
Cream the butter in a separate bowl.
Beat the sugar and eggs together until well combined.
Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients.
Stir in the milk and beat the entire mixture for a few minutes.
Pour the batter into round sheet-iron pans that are 4 inches deep.
Bake until the loaf is the desired thickness.
Cut the loaf pie-fashion when serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).