Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the Indian meal, flour, sour milk, saleratus, and brown sugar, then mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.
Bake and serve
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cut with a sharp knife to serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Indian meal
- Provides the coarse cornmeal structure and the characteristic grainy texture of the bread.
- Flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the bread holds its shape after baking.
- Sour milk
- Supplies moisture and acid that reacts with the saleratus to produce rising.
- Saleratus
- Releases carbon dioxide when it meets the acid in the sour milk, leavening the batter.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and molasses flavour, and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into the dish promptly after mixing. Saleratus begins releasing carbon dioxide as soon as it contacts the acidic sour milk. Delaying the pour lets some of that gas escape before baking, which can leave the cornbread denser and less risen.
“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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