Name: Corn Pie
Ingredients: 1 quart tender green corn, split and scraped from the cobs; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 heaping tablespoon butter; Stewed chicken; Chicken gravy; 1 cup sweet cream

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Corn Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Season the corn with salt, pepper, and butter.

Assemble and bake

In a baking dish, layer corn and stewed chicken, repeating until all ingredients are used, with corn on top.
Pour chicken gravy and sweet cream over the layers.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + chickentop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,666 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn: Forms the main body of the pie and adds sweetness and tender texture.
Stewed chicken: Provides the savory, protein-rich filling layer between the corn.
Chicken gravy: Adds moisture and savory flavor that soaks into the layers while baking.
Sweet cream: Adds richness and fat, helping the top set softly and keep the layers moist.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the corn, improving flavor and mouthfeel.

“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.