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Dessert

Fairy Corn Bread

A sweet corn bread made with grated green corn, yellow cornmeal, milk, eggs, butter, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fairy Corn Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

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.

Make the corn base

  1. Cook grated corn and 1 cup milk in a double boiler for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove and add butter.

  3. Stir 1 cup milk into the yolks.

  4. Add the corn mixture.

Mix the batter

  1. Beat eggs separately.

  2. Sift cornmeal with baking powder.

  3. Add to the mixture, beating well.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Bake in a greased baking dish at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites lift it so the bread stays light.
Yellow cornmeal
Provides the main body and corn flavour of the bread.
Green corn
Adds moisture and sweet corn flavour to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to help the bread rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer crumb and richer flavour.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and makes the batter pourable.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten stiff hold air that gives the bread lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the bread bakes up dense. Fold gently until just combined.

“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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