Name: Old Fashioned Corn Bread
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 gallon cornmeal, well scalded; 4 eggs, well beaten; 1 teaspoon salt; 4 ounces fresh butter, softened; 2 ounces white sugar; 2 ounces pork cracklings, chopped; ½ pint sweet milk

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Old Fashioned Corn Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix and rest

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Bake

Pour the mixture into a baking pan.
Bake for 1 hour.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,386 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 bread and gives it its corn flavour and grainy texture.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the structure as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda: Releases carbon dioxide gas that helps the bread rise.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture so the batter can hydrate the cornmeal.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.

“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.