Name: Corn, No. 1
Ingredients: 9 cups young corn, cut from the cob; 1 cup water; 1 cup sugar (optional); ½ cup salt

Why it works: Corn and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,168 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn, No. 1

Ingredients

9 cups young corn, cut from the cob
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (optional)
½ cup salt

Directions

Boil and jar

Boil the corn, water, sugar, and salt for 30 minutes.
Seal the mixture in glass jars.

Soak

Drain the liquid and soak the corn in lukewarm water for 3 to 4 hours.

Cook in milk

Drain again and cook the corn in milk, seasoning to taste.

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.

Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,168 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Young corn: Forms the main body of the dish and absorbs flavour from the milk.
Milk (in the method): Adds moisture and richness as the corn cooks in it.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to the corn during the first boil.

“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.