Name: Usb Royal Baking Powder
Ingredients: 1 pint buttermilk; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 2 eggs; cornmeal (amount not specified)

Why it works: Buttermilk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Usb Royal Baking Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

1 pint buttermilk
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
cornmeal (amount not specified)

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Scald the cornmeal.
Beat the eggs very light.

Mix and bake

While the cornmeal is cooking, stir in the buttermilk, baking soda, and eggs.
Bake in a deep dish in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,986 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal: Provides the main body and grainy texture of the cake.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda: Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.

“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.