Name: Egg Bread
Ingredients: 1 quart cornmeal; 2 eggs; 1 cup sweet milk or water; 1 teaspoon quick yeast; 1 large spoon lard (about 2 tablespoons); 1 teaspoon salt

Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Egg Bread

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.

Make the batter

Scald the cornmeal with boiling water.
In a bowl, mix the scalded cornmeal with the eggs, sweet milk or water, quick yeast, lard, and salt, stirring until well combined.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a shallow pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) 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.

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

Cornmeal: Forms the bulk of the crumb; scalding it hydrates the starch so it absorbs liquid evenly.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the bread sets.
Sweet milk or water: Provides moisture that hydrates the cornmeal and helps the batter spread in the pan.
Quick yeast: Produces gas that lifts the batter and gives a lighter texture.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and promotes browning on the surface.

“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.