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Vineyard Corn Bread

A sweet cornbread made with cornmeal, flour, milk, sugar, and baked until golden.

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. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and cream of tartar in a large bowl.

  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. Mix in the remaining milk and beat again.

Bake and serve

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

  2. Stack the layers.

  3. 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

Cream of tartar
Reacts with baking soda to produce rising and gives the crumb a light, tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cornbread rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and dissolves the baking soda so the batter can develop.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Corn meal
Provides the corn flavor and a coarser, crumbly texture.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and then mixed in promptly so it reacts evenly with the cream of tartar. Undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots, and gas escapes if the batter sits too long before baking.

“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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