Name: Southern Corn Bread
Ingredients: 1 pint cornmeal; 3 eggs, beaten separately; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup cold boiled rice or hominy; milk to make a thin batter

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 ↓

Southern Corn Bread

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, baking powder, and butter.
Add the beaten eggs and cold boiled rice or hominy.
Gradually add milk until you achieve a thin batter.

Bake

Pour the batter into a loaf pan or gem pans.
Bake 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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 crumb and gives the cornbread its characteristic flavor and texture.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the cornbread rise and become light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the crust brown.
Milk: Hydrates the cornmeal to create a thin batter that bakes up moist.

The step that matters

Gradually add milk until you achieve a thin batter. Cornmeal absorbs liquid at different rates, so adding milk slowly lets you reach the right consistency. A batter that is too thick bakes dense, while one that is too thin may not set properly.

“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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Southern Corn Bread