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 ↓
Corn Bread 1
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix cornmeal, salt, and baking powder.
In another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and melted butter.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the structure and gives the bread its grainy texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the bread rise.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture to the batter.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps browning.
The step that matters
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour-based batter and can make the bread tough. Stop once no dry streaks remain, since lumps are fine.
“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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