Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Green Sweet Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Cut the corn across the grain with a sharp knife and scrape out the pulp.
In a bowl, combine the corn pulp, beaten egg, salt, and pepper.
Fry
Heat melted butter in a skillet over low heat.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the skillet.
Fry until brown on one side, then turn and brown the other side.
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.
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,484 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn pulp
- Provides the main body and sweet flavor of the fritters.
- Egg
- Binds the corn pulp so the spoonfuls hold together while frying.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the surface brown in the skillet.
The step that matters
Frying over low heat. Sugars and proteins in the batter brown slowly at moderate heat. Turning once the first side is set lets the centre cook through before the outside darkens too much.
“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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