Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Corn Meal Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs until light.
Make and bake
In a large bowl, combine the wheat flour, corn meal, sweet milk, salt, sugar, melted butter, and baking powder.
Add the beaten eggs and mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together465 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
- Wheat flour
- Provides the main structure of the batter as its proteins set during baking.
- Corn meal
- Gives the cornbread its characteristic coarse texture and flavor.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the crumb brown.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cornbread rises and stays light.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and cornmeal and adds moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Beat the eggs until light. Beaten eggs trap air that helps the batter rise and gives a lighter crumb. Under-beaten eggs leave a denser cornbread, so they should look pale and visibly fluffy before being folded in.
“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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