Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Stewed Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the corn from the cobs.
Fry the bacon in a frying pan until the grease is rendered.
Remove the bacon and add the corn to the frying pan.
Cook and finish
Cover the corn with boiling water and cook for 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.
Before serving, add the cream or milk, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
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.
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together21,449 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Corn + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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
- Sweet corn
- Forms the main body of the dish, its natural sugars giving sweetness as it cooks.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the stewed corn.
- Bacon
- Renders fat into the pan that carries flavour through the corn.
The step that matters
Stirring while the corn cooks. Corn sugars and starches can scorch on the bottom of the pan during a long simmer. Frequent stirring spreads the heat and keeps the liquid moving, which prevents burning.
“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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