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Nonpareil Corn Bread

A quick, sweet cornbread made with Indian meal, flour, eggs, milk, lard, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Nonpareil 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs very thoroughly, separating the whites and yolks.

  3. Melt the lard.

Make and bake the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the Indian meal, flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add the melted lard, sugar, milk, and the beaten egg yolks to the dry ingredients.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

  5. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Whites trapped by folding add lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the crumb.
Indian meal
Cornmeal forms the bulk of the batter and gives the bread its corn flavour and crumb.
Flour
Gluten from the flour gives the batter enough structure to hold its shape when baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cornbread rise and become light.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.
Lard
Fat coats flour and meal particles, adding tenderness and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that helps lift the batter. Stirring vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a dense cornbread, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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