Name: Corn Baked with Peppers
Ingredients: 1 pint corn, scraped from the cob; 2 green peppers; 1 cup cream; 1 egg, beaten; 2 tablespoons butter, melted; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Corn Baked with Peppers

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.

Prepare the vegetables

Score the ears of corn and scrape enough to measure 1 pint.
Wipe the green peppers and drop them into boiling water for 5 minutes. Rub off the skin with a rough cloth, remove seeds, and finely chop.

Assemble and bake

Layer the corn and peppers in a buttered baking dish, seasoning with salt.
Mix the cream with the beaten egg and pour over the corn and peppers. Add the melted butter and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 40 minutes.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn: Provides the sweet bulk of the dish and its tender texture once baked.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture that gives the bake a soft, custardy body.
Egg: Sets with heat to bind the cream and hold the bake together.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and flavor, and helps the top brown lightly.

“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.