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Virginia Rice Corn Pone

A baked corn and rice cake made with eggs, butter, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Virginia Rice Corn Pone

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Scald half of the cornmeal with hot water until it can be mixed.

  3. Add butter and salt to the scalded cornmeal.

  4. Beat the eggs and stir in the cooled rice.

  5. Add the milk and mix well.

  6. In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder with the remaining dry cornmeal and stir it into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Grease a baking dish with a little melted butter and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake for 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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 the pone sets.
Yellow cornmeal
Provides the main body and corn flavour of the pone.
Cooled rice
Adds moisture and a soft, tender crumb to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the pone rises and lightens.
Milk
Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Scalding the cornmeal. Pouring hot water over part of the cornmeal swells its starch so the mixture becomes workable. Using too little water or skipping the scald leaves the batter gritty and dry, while the remaining dry cornmeal and baking powder can then be stirred in evenly.

“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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