Name: Lunch Entree
Ingredients: 1 can corn; 1 cup chopped olives; 2 cans tamales; 1 cup finely cut cheese; Butter (for topping)

Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lunch Entree

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a baking dish, combine the corn, chopped olives, and tamales.
Sprinkle the finely cut cheese on top.
Add butter on top of the cheese.

Bake

Bake for about 40 minutes.

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.

Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Corn + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,502 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Olive + cheesetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,802 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn: Adds moisture and mild sweetness to the casserole.
Chopped olives: Adds salty, briny flavor that balances the richness.
Tamales: Form the base of the casserole, and their masa softens and thickens as it bakes.
Cheese: Melts into a creamy layer and browns on top.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches flavor and helps the top brown.

“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.