Name: Corn Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups cornmeal; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons white sugar; 2½ cups buttermilk (or soured milk); 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1½ tablespoons melted butter

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Corn 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.

Prepare the batter

In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Stir in buttermilk and melted butter until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered tin.

Steam and dry

Steam for 2 hours.
After steaming, dry off in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Cornmeal: Forms the main structure and gives the cornbread its coarse, crumbly texture.
All-purpose flour: Adds gluten-based structure so the bread holds together better.
Buttermilk: Supplies moisture and acidity, which reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Melted butter: Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich in flavour.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.

“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.