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Dessert

Green Corn Pone

A baked corn-based loaf made with cornmeal, sweet milk, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Green Corn Pone

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. 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 the batter

  1. Remove the kernels from the corn and combine with cornmeal, sweet milk, beaten eggs, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Mix until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown, about 30-40 minutes.

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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn kernels
Provide moisture, sweetness and body that give the pone its tender crumb.
Cornmeal
Forms the main structure of the batter, setting firm as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a sliceable structure.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the cornmeal for a softer texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the batter to lift it and help browning.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Baking too briefly leaves the centre wet and gummy because the eggs and starch have not fully set. Baking too long dries the crumb. Watching for golden colour helps time the bake.

“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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