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 Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Stir together the Indian meal and milk.
Add the beaten eggs and melted butter, mixing well.
Pour the batter into a bake pan.
Bake
Bake slowly with coals on the lid and underneath the pan, or hang over the fire.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Forms the main body of the bread, providing its structure and corn flavour.
- Milk
- Hydrates the meal so it forms a spoonable batter and adds moisture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a tender, cohesive crumb.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
The step that matters
Bake slowly. Slow, even heat from coals above and below lets the centre cook through before the outside over-browns. Cornmeal batter sets gradually, so rushing the heat can leave it burnt outside and raw inside.
“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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