Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fricaseed Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Cut fresh corn from the cob.
Place corn in a pot and cover with boiling water.
Boil for 30 minutes.
Finish the sauce
Stir in cream, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.
Boil for a few more minutes.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter and flour 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
- Fresh corn
- Provides the main body and sweetness of the dish.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, thick texture as it heats.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor, helping the sauce feel silky.
- Flour
- Thickens the cream so the corn is coated rather than watery.
The step that matters
Adding the cream mixture to the boiling corn. Flour needs to be stirred in well and kept at a boil for a few minutes so it fully thickens the liquid and cooks out its raw taste. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin or floury.
“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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