Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Egg 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 the batter
Scald the cornmeal in a pot.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sweet milk or water.
Add the scalded cornmeal, quick yeast, lard, and salt to the egg mixture. Stir until well combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a shallow pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) 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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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its characteristic grainy structure and flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Quick yeast
- Produces gas that helps the bread rise and turn lighter in texture.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the crust brown.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter, softening the crumb.
The step that matters
Scalding the cornmeal. Pouring boiling liquid over or into cornmeal gelatinizes its starch, which softens the grain and keeps the finished bread moist. Skipping or underdoing this step can leave the crumb gritty and dry.
“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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