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Corn Au Gratin

A baked dish of cooked corn mixed with white sauce, butter, crumbs, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Corn Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter a fireproof dish and sprinkle it with fine brown crumbs.

Make and assemble

  1. Heat the cooked corn in the white sauce.

  2. Pour the corn mixture into the prepared dish.

  3. Cover with shredded cheese and additional crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and bubbly.

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.

  1. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Corn + cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together880 recipes

    Shared aroma: butanoic acid ethyl ester (sweet).

  5. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Cooked corn
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its sweet flavor.
White sauce
Binds the corn and keeps the filling moist and creamy.
Shredded cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top for flavor and color.
Fine brown crumbs
Adds a crisp, golden topping that contrasts with the soft filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown.

The step that matters

Bake until golden and bubbly. Baking must be long enough for the sauce to heat through and the cheese and crumbs to brown. Underbaking leaves a cool, wet center, while overbaking can dry the sauce and toughen the cheese.

“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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