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 ↓
Corn Pudding
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.
Prepare the batter
Grate the corn very fine.
In a bowl, combine the grated corn, beaten eggs, milk, and butter.
Mix in the flour (made smooth in a little cold water), salt, and pepper. Beat the mixture well and pour it into a baking dish.
Bake
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.
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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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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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Corn
- Provides the bulk and sweet flavour of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess, and helps the eggs form a soft custard.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid mixture so the pudding holds together when cut.
The step that matters
Mix in the flour smooth before adding it. Flour added dry clumps easily in liquid and stays lumpy. Making it into a smooth paste with cold water first lets it disperse evenly, so the batter thickens uniformly rather than forming pockets of raw starch.
“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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