Name: Corn Pudding
Ingredients: 12 large ears of corn; 4 eggs; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 pint milk; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon sugar

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Corn Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

Grate the corn from the cob.
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
Add the yolks to the corn, then mix in the melted butter, milk, sugar, and salt.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 hours, covering the dish for the first hour.
Remove the cover for the last 20 minutes to brown the pudding.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Whites beaten separately and folded in give the pudding a light, set custard structure.
Corn: Grated kernels and their milky juice supply the main body and sweet flavour of the pudding.
Milk: Provides liquid that gives the pudding a soft, custard-like moisture as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother, tender texture in the baked pudding.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during the final uncovered baking.