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Spider Corn Bread

A corn bread made with cornmeal, wheat flour, eggs, milk, butter, baked in a skillet and oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Spider Corn Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat a skillet over medium heat.

  2. In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, wheat flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

  3. In another bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk, then stir into the dry mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Partly melt the butter in the skillet, pour in the batter, and add the remaining milk without stirring.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. When done, there will be a streak of custard through the middle.

  4. Serve from the skillet with cream and sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Provides the coarse, gritty texture and the characteristic corn flavor.
Wheat flour
Adds structure so the bread holds together and is less crumbly.
Eggs
Set with heat to bind the batter and add richness and moisture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, giving the bread lift as it bakes.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and adds moisture to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and helps brown and crisp the edges in the skillet.

The step that matters

Judging doneness. Egg proteins set as they heat, so a fully firm centre means the bread has dried out. A thin streak of soft custard through the middle shows the eggs are close to set and the bread is still moist.

“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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