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Steamed Corn Bread

A moist steamed bread made from cornmeal, flour, eggs, milk, molasses, lard, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steamed Corn Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs, cornmeal, sweet milk, flour, molasses, lard, and baking soda, then mix until well combined.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a bucket with a tight lid.

  2. Place the bucket in a kettle of boiling water.

  3. Steam for 3 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Cornmeal
Forms the main body of the cornbread and gives its characteristic texture.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the cornmeal so the batter pours and sets evenly.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-forming protein that gives the crumb more structure and tenderness.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor to the cornbread.
Lard
Adds fat for moistness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Keep the bucket sealed and the kettle boiling during the 3 hours of steaming. Steam is what cooks the batter, so a loose lid or water level dropping below the bucket lets steam escape and the cornbread can turn out dense or undercooked. Steady boiling keeps the temperature constant throughout.

“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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