Name: Soda Bread of Corn Meal
Ingredients: 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon butter or lard; 3 cups cornmeal; 1 cup wheat flour (optional)

Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Soda Bread of Corn Meal

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and bake

In a bowl, mix sweet milk, sour milk, salt, baking soda, butter, cornmeal, and wheat flour if using.
Pour the mixture into a greased tin.
Bake for 40 minutes or until 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 + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Cornmeal: Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its coarse, crumbly texture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to release gas, so the bread rises.
Sour milk or buttermilk: Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and adds a tangy flavor.
Butter or lard: Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor, and helps browning.
Sweet milk: Supplies moisture so the batter hydrates the cornmeal into a workable mixture.

The step that matters

Mixing the batter. Baking soda needs the acid in the sour milk or buttermilk to react and lift the bread. Mix the batter promptly and get it into the oven, because the gas released early escapes and the loaf rises less.

“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.

Wheat Bread65 recipes

Whole Wheat Bread55 recipes

Barley Wheat Bread6 recipes

Cornbread345 recipes

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Soda Bread of Corn Meal