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Loaf Corn-bread

A loaf of cornbread made with Indian meal, flour, eggs, milk, cottolene, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Loaf Corn-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.

Prepare

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

  2. Beat the eggs thoroughly, separating the whites and yolks.

  3. Melt the cottolene.

Mix the batter

  1. Sift the baking powder into the Indian meal and flour while dry.

  2. Combine the dry ingredients with the melted cottolene and beaten eggs.

  3. Beat the mixture hard for one minute.

Bake

  1. Pour into a buttered mold 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.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the loaf rises and becomes light.
Indian meal
Cornmeal forms the bulk of the loaf and gives it its corn flavour and crumb.
Flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that gives the loaf body and holds its shape.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and adds moisture and richness to the crumb.
Cottolene
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and helps browning.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture hard for one minute. Vigorous beating develops gluten in the flour and incorporates air, which helps the loaf rise and gives it a firm, even structure. Beating after the baking powder is added also helps distribute the leavening evenly through the batter.

“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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