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 ↓
Hulled Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Make the corn
Place the desired amount of hulled corn in a saucepan and cover with milk.
Season lightly with coarse sea salt.
Simmer slowly, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.
Once cooked, stir in a good-sized piece of butter.
Serve
Serve with a pitcher of cream and a bowl of sugar.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Hulled corn
- Provides the main body of the pudding as its starch softens during simmering.
- Milk
- Cooks with the corn to give a soft, creamy, moist texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth finish when stirred in after cooking.
- Cream
- Offered at serving to add richness and extra creaminess to each portion.
- Sugar
- Offered at serving to add sweetness to taste.
The step that matters
Simmer slowly, stirring occasionally. Milk contains sugars and proteins that scorch easily on direct heat. Slow simmering and regular stirring spread the heat evenly and keep the bottom from burning while the corn softens.
“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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