Why it works: Milk and egg 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 ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Mix the hominy with cornmeal and lard.
Pour boiling water over the mixture and let it stand until cold.
Once cold, stir in the eggs, milk, and baking powder.
Bake
Preheat a buttered pan until very hot.
Pour the mixture into the hot pan and bake for about 20 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 main body of the bread and gives it its corn flavor and crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the batter so the cornbread rises and becomes lighter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
- Boiled hominy
- Adds soft, tender texture and moisture to the batter.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Preheating the buttered pan until very hot. Pouring the batter into a very hot, greased pan starts the crust setting and browning immediately, helping the cornbread release cleanly and develop a crisp edge instead of sticking or baking pale.
“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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