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 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the sour cream, butter, and baking soda dissolved in hot water.
Gradually add sifted flour and enough cornmeal to form a soft dough.
Work the dough with your hands until well combined.
Bake and serve
Transfer the dough to a buttered pan and bake until golden brown.
Serve very hot.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce carbon dioxide, lightening the crumb.
- White cornmeal
- Provides the main body and corn flavor that gives the bread its structure.
- Sifted flour
- Adds gluten-forming structure so the dough holds together with the cornmeal.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in hot water before mixing. Baking soda needs moisture and an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it evenly in the mix spreads the reaction through the dough, so the cornbread rises uniformly instead of forming pockets or a bitter, patchy texture.
“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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