Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Grate the corn from the cob.
Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
Combine the corn and egg yolks, then stir in the melted butter.
Add the milk, sugar, and a little salt.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, like custard.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
-
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the pudding into a custard-like texture and add structure, with whipped whites adding lift.
- Corn
- Provides the main body, sweetness and texture of the pudding.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creates the custard base that sets during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding keeps the whipped whites' air in the batter, which helps the pudding rise and stay light. Stirring vigorously would deflate them and make the pudding dense.
“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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