Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Scrape the corn from the cobs into a bowl.
Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.
Mix the egg yolks with the corn, sugar, flour, melted butter, salt, and pepper, then stir in the milk until well combined.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes, until set.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Corn
- Provides the main bulk and sweet, tender body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the pudding its structure, and the whites add lightness.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and, with the eggs, forms the custard that sets as it bakes.
- Flour
- Helps stabilise the custard so it holds its shape when set.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Fold in the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites trap air that gives lift. Stirring them vigorously knocks the air out, leaving a denser pudding once baked.
“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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