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Bread

Steamed Corn Bread

A steamed bread made with cornmeal, flour, molasses, buttermilk, sweet milk or water, salt, baking soda, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Steamed Corn Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, sweet milk (or water), salt, and baking soda.

  2. Add cornmeal, flour, molasses, and egg to the mixture and stir until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased steaming dish.

  2. Steam for 3 hours until cooked through.

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.

  1. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk acid to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture.
Cornmeal
Forms the main structure of the bread and gives it its coarse texture.
Flour
Adds gluten-based structure that helps the bread hold together.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set as it cooks.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours until cooked through. Steaming cooks the batter gently with moist heat, so it stays tender and moist. Cooking too briefly leaves the centre doughy, because the starches and egg proteins need sustained heat to set fully.

“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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