Name: Corn Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups cornmeal; 2 cups sweet milk (whole or 2 cups sour milk); 1 teaspoon baking soda; 4 teaspoons baking powder; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 tablespoons fat (butter or oil); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 egg (optional)

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and bake the batter

In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Add the milk, well-beaten egg (if using), and melted fat to the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined.
Pour the batter into a shallow pan and bake for about 30 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.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Cornmeal: Forms the bulk of the crumb and gives the cornbread its characteristic texture and flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, helping the bread rise.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking to lift the batter and give an open, tender crumb.
Milk: Hydrates the cornmeal and dry ingredients to form a batter, adding moisture and richness.
Egg: Adds structure and richness, binding the batter together as it sets.
Fat: Adds moisture and tenderness, and helps prevent the crumb from becoming dry.

“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.