Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Corn Meal Mush
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the cornmeal mush into slices ¼ inch thick.
Roll the slices in white flour.
Fry in a small amount of butter or suet until golden brown, ensuring both sides are cooked evenly.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the dish, setting into a firm mush that holds its shape when sliced.
- White flour
- Coats the slices so they brown evenly and develop a crisp, golden surface when fried.
- Butter or suet
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the outside of the slices.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown on both sides. Flour-coated starch browns through Maillard reactions only at sufficient surface heat. Too little fat or heat leaves the slices pale and soft, while turning them too early can tear the coating.
“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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