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Canned Corn and Tomatoes

A preserved mixture of tomatoes and corn, seasoned with salt, pepper, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Canned Corn and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stew the tomatoes until cooked.

  2. Boil the corn on the ear and cut it off the cob.

Cook and can

  1. Cook the corn with the tomatoes until thoroughly hot.

  2. Fill heated cans with the mixture and seal immediately.

Dress and simmer

  1. To dress canned corn, pour it into a saucepan.

  2. Add ½ pint of rich milk, 2 ounces of butter, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper.

  3. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.

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. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that give the dish its base liquid and tang.
Corn
Adds sweetness and bulk, with a tender texture after cooking.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, softening the mixture when it simmers.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Sealing the cans immediately after filling. Filling heated cans and sealing straight away lets the contents and headspace cool together, which helps create the vacuum that keeps the seal tight.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, pepper, milk, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, pepper, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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