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Vineyard Corn Bread

A sweet cornbread made with milk, cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Vineyard Corn Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, corn meal, sugar, and cream of tartar.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk.

  3. Add half of the milk and the egg to the dry ingredients and beat thoroughly.

  4. Add the remaining milk and beat again until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  2. Once baked, stack the layers and serve hot, cut into pie-shaped pieces.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cornbread together after baking.
Corn meal
Gives the cornbread its characteristic grainy texture and corn flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar and milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that reacts with the baking soda to help the cornbread rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and dissolves the baking soda so the batter can react and set.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved before mixing, or pockets of it can leave bitter, soapy spots and uneven rising. Combining it with the acid in the batter gives the leavening reaction that lifts the cornbread.

“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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