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Creamfd Corn Beef

A baked casserole of creamed corn with cold corned beef, topped with buttered cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Creamfd Corn Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Scald the milk with half an onion and the chopped celery.

  2. Strain out the vegetables.

  3. Stir in the butter and flour until well combined.

  4. Cook until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the cold corned beef and mix well.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a buttered baking dish.

  3. Combine the cracker crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle on top.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crumbs are browned.

  5. Garnish the center with celery leaves.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, which gives the dish its creamy body.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the crumb topping brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the corned beef together.
Corned beef
Provides the main savory meat flavor and substance of the dish.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when baked with melted butter.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until it thickens. Flour must be cooked in the hot milk mixture until it thickens. Stopping early leaves a thin, raw-tasting sauce that will not hold the corned beef together.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, onion, butter, flour, beef):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, butter, flour, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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