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 ↓
Hominy 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
Boil the hominy grits until soft.
In a bowl, combine the boiled hominy, beaten eggs, melted lard or butter, and cornmeal.
Add enough milk to create a very thin batter.
Stir in the baking powder or baking soda if using sour milk. Mix well.
Bake
Pour into a greased baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the main body of the bread and gives it its coarse texture.
- Hominy grits
- Adds moisture and a soft, tender crumb once boiled.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter to make the bread rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid in sour milk to help the bread rise and brown.
The step that matters
Adding enough milk for a very thin batter. Cornmeal and grits absorb liquid as they sit and bake. A batter that is too thick bakes dense and dry, so the consistency needs to be checked before it goes into the dish.
“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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