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 ↓
Indian Meal Mush
Ingredients
Directions
Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a pot.
Add 1 tablespoon of fresh butter and salt to taste.
Once boiling, sift in ¾ cup of Indian meal while stirring continuously.
Alternatively, wet the meal with cold milk before adding.
Reduce heat and boil slowly on the back of the stove until thick.
You can also boil the mixture in milk instead of water.
Serve hot with milk or cream and sugar.
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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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Indian meal
- Cornmeal that swells and thickens the water into a porridge as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the finished porridge.
The step that matters
Sift in the meal while stirring. Adding cornmeal to liquid that is not yet boiling or not stirred can clump into lumps. Sifting it in slowly while stirring disperses the starch so it hydrates evenly and thickens smoothly.
“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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