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 Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs separately.
Make the batter
Combine melted butter with the milks.
Add sugar, salt, egg yolks, and baking soda (dissolved in 1 tablespoon warm water).
Mix in the egg whites, flour, and cornmeal.
Beat the mixture quickly and well.
Bake
Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake for 30 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, and its liquid moistens the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to release gas, which lightens the cornbread as it rises.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set, along with moisture and richness.
- Cornmeal
- Gives the cornbread its characteristic coarse texture and corn flavor.
- Flour
- Adds structure so the cornbread holds together after baking.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture quickly and well. Baking soda reacts with the acid in the sour milk as soon as it is mixed in, releasing gas. Beating quickly and thoroughly spreads that gas through the batter as bubbles, which helps the cornbread rise evenly. Waiting long before baking lets those bubbles escape.
“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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