Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
White Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Scald the cornmeal with boiling water until thoroughly mixed.
Add the butter and beaten egg to the mixture.
Stir in enough milk to make the batter thin enough to flow.
Bake
Pour the batter into a pan, ensuring it is about 1 inch thick.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its characteristic corn flavor and grainy texture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness, tenderness and flavor.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal so the batter flows and bakes to a moist crumb.
The step that matters
Scalding the cornmeal with boiling water. Boiling water must be fully worked into the cornmeal so the starch hydrates evenly. Unmixed dry pockets stay gritty and the crumb bakes unevenly.
“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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