Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Corn Bread, or Johnaycake
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 and bake the batter
In a bowl, combine sweet milk, sour milk, salt, baking soda, and melted butter or lard.
Add cornmeal and wheat flour (if using) to the mixture and stir until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased tin.
Bake for 40 minutes or 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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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the bread its characteristic texture and flavor.
- Sour milk or buttermilk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide, lifting the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk to leaven the bread.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and helps bind the batter.
The step that matters
Combine the wet mixture and baking soda before adding the cornmeal. Baking soda reacts with the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk as soon as it is wet, releasing carbon dioxide. Mixing promptly and getting the batter into the hot oven keeps those gas bubbles from escaping, so the bread rises well.
“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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