Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Corn Pone
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Combine corn meal, salt, and melted lard in a bowl.
Mix equal parts of scalded milk and boiling water to moisten the mixture until it can be molded by hand.
Shape and bake
Shape the mixture into oblong cakes, about 6 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 1 inch thick, with thin edges and tapering ends.
Place the shaped pones on a well-greased baking sheet.
Brush the pones with melted butter or milk.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.
Finish and serve
Split each pone, butter it, and insert a thin slice of crisp bacon.
Serve immediately.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White corn meal
- Forms the main body of the bread, giving it its grainy, sturdy structure.
- Melted lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
- Scalded milk
- Adds moisture and softens the corn meal so the dough can be shaped by hand.
- Crisp bacon
- Adds salty, smoky flavor and contrasting crunch inside the split pone.
The step that matters
Moistening the mixture to the right consistency. Corn meal absorbs liquid slowly and unevenly. Too little liquid makes the dough crumble when shaped, while too much makes it sticky and dense after baking.
“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.
More cornbread recipes
You might also like
Corn Fritters203 recipes
Cream of Corn Soup50 recipes
Green Corn Soup46 recipes
Cornmeal Gruel41 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.