Name: Raw Corn
Ingredients: fresh raw corn; coarse sea salt; tomatoes; lettuce; French dressing

Why it works: Corn and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Raw Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the husks from the fresh raw corn.
Place the corn in cold salted water for 15 minutes.
Cut the corn from the cob with a sharp knife.
Serve plain or with tomatoes, lettuce, and French dressing.

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.

Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Corn + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).