Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Hominy
Ingredients
Directions
Pack cold hominy in a greased one-pound baking powder box overnight to prevent crust from forming.
In the morning, remove from the box and cut into thin slices.
Dip the slices in flour and fry in hot butter until golden brown.
Serve with maple syrup.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + maple syruptop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + maple syruptop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,034 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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
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