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Polenta, a l'Italienne

A creamy cornmeal dish cooked with butter, cheese, and cracker meal, served in a baking pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Polenta, a l'Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mush

  1. Brush the inside of a small saucepan with melted butter.

  2. In the saucepan, combine water and cornmeal to make mush, cooking it covered for about 2 hours on low heat.

  3. Stir in 1 ounce of butter, salt, and pepper until well mixed.

Layer in the pan

  1. Spread the remaining butter on the bottom of a 2-quart baking pan and sprinkle half of the cracker meal over it.

  2. Spoon the mush into the pan, smoothing it out without disturbing the crust.

  3. Top with minced cheese and sprinkle the remaining cracker meal over it.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow cornmeal
Forms the main body of the dish, thickening with water into a soft, spoonable mush.
Water
Hydrates the cornmeal so its starch swells and gelatinizes into a smooth mush.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, flavorful texture.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the mush and the topping.
Cracker meal
Forms the crust layers on the bottom and top of the polenta.

The step that matters

Cook the mush covered on low heat. Cornmeal starch needs slow, gentle cooking with steady moisture to swell fully and thicken evenly. Low heat helps prevent scorching on the pan bottom and lumps forming while the water is absorbed.

“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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