Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Hulled Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lye
Tie the wood ashes in a flannel bag and place it in a large kettle.
Add cold water and bring to a boil to create lye; the water will turn black.
Hull the corn
Add the corn and boil until the hulls loosen.
Stir with a wooden paddle, then pour into a large dishpan of cold water. Rub the corn with your hands to remove the hulls, changing the water six times until the kernels are clean.
Soak and cook
Soak the corn in cold water overnight.
In the morning, drain and add fresh cold water to cover the corn. Simmer for four hours or until tender, skimming off hulls and scum as needed.
Serve
Drain and serve hot or cold with pepper, salt, and butter, or with cream and sugar.
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.
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Hard yellow or white corn
- Provides the kernels that swell and soften into the main body of the dish.
- Hard wood ashes
- Release alkali into the water to make lye, which loosens the hulls from the corn.
The step that matters
Simmer until tender while skimming. The corn must cook long enough to soften fully, and skimming off loosened hulls and scum keeps the cooking liquid clean so the kernels stay clear of bitter residue.
“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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