Name: Corn Pudding for Tea
Ingredients: 12 ears of sweet corn; 3 eggs; 1 pint (2 cups) of milk; 3 tablespoons of sugar; 1 teaspoon of salt; 1 tablespoon of butter; 1 tablespoon of flour (if corn is very young)

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 for Tea

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

Grate half of the corn and cut the other half into pieces.

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the grated corn, cut corn, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, and butter.
If the corn is very young, add flour to the mixture.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set and golden brown.

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).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Sweet corn: Provides the main bulk and sweet corn flavor, with grated corn giving a creamy texture.
Eggs: Set when heated, giving the pudding its structure and firm, sliceable body.
Milk: Adds moisture and richness, and helps the custard set softly when baked.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Flour: Thickens the mixture and adds body when the corn is very young and starchy content is low.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden brown. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding runny while overbaking makes it dry and curdled. Watch for a set center and golden top.

“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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Corn Pudding for Tea