Why it works: Buttermilk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Batter Bread
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.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the scalded cornmeal, buttermilk, and eggs to make a batter.
Stir in the melted lard.
Bake
Pour the batter into shallow pans.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for a short time, first on the rack, then move to the bottom of the oven.
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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Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Scalding softens the cornmeal, giving the bread a tender, moist crumb and body.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity, which tenderizes the crumb and reacts with the baking soda.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the bread's structure as it bakes.
- Lard
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture, and helps the crust brown.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to release gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Baking in the oven. Baking at 400°F for only a short time keeps the cornbread moist. Overbaking dries out the crumb, while moving the pan to the bottom of the oven helps the base finish cooking and brown.
“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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