Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Baked Corn
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the mixture
Beat the eggs until light.
Rub together the melted butter and sugar.
Stir in the corn and season with pepper and salt.
Add the milk and beat the mixture well.
Bake and serve
Pour into a buttered dish and cover.
Bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and brown the top.
Serve in the bake-dish.
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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Milk + buttertop 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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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set into a custard-like structure as it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds liquid that gives the baked corn a soft, moist, custardy texture.
- Corn
- Provides the main body, sweetness and texture of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and brown the top. Covering keeps the custard moist while the eggs set. Uncovering for the final stage lets surface moisture evaporate and the sugars and proteins brown, so the top does not stay pale or soggy.
“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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