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 ↓
Canned 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and melted butter together.
Add the drained corn to the egg mixture.
In a separate bowl, salt the milk and dissolve the corn starch in it.
Gradually pour the milk mixture into the corn mixture, mixing well.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 45 minutes, covering until nearly done, then uncover to 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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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 + 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).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard and give the pudding its structure as they cook.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk so the pudding becomes soft and sliceable rather than watery.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the eggs and starch set into a custard.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
- Corn
- Provides the main flavor and pieces of tender texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Gradually pour the milk mixture into the corn mixture, mixing well.. Adding the liquid slowly while mixing spreads the corn starch and eggs evenly. This prevents starch lumps and pockets, so the custard sets smooth and uniform in the oven.
“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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