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 ↓
Fried Hominy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the hominy cake
Stir together the cold boiled hominy, beaten egg, melted butter, and milk.
Heat the mixture over low heat.
Pour the mixture into a mold, dredging lightly with flour.
Once cold, slice the hominy.
Fry and serve
In a flat pan, heat a lump of coconut until hot.
Fry the slices until brown.
Drain the slices.
Serve piled on a dish with maple syrup.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Hominy
- Forms the bulk of the dish; its starch thickens as it cooks and firms as it cools.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when cooked.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the slices brown in the pan.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.
- Flour
- Dusted on the mold, it helps the outside brown during frying.
The step that matters
Let the hominy cool fully before slicing. Starch in the hominy gels as the mixture heats and firms further as it cools. Cutting it only when fully cold gives clean slices that hold their shape in the pan instead of crumbling.
“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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