Name: Heavenly Corn Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup cornmeal; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon butter; 1½ cups boiling water; 1 cup milk; 3 eggs, beaten light; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 tablespoon flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Heavenly Corn Bread

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

Combine cornmeal, salt, butter, and boiling water in a bowl.
Let the mixture stand for 6 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Add milk, beaten eggs, sugar, flour, and baking powder to the cornmeal mixture. Mix well.

Bake

Pour the batter into hollow pans.
Bake for 30 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Cornmeal: Forms the main body of the bread and gives it its corn flavor and grainy texture.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the bread hold together as it sets.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the cornbread rise and become light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Let the cornmeal mixture stand. Standing for 6 hours or overnight lets the cornmeal soak up the boiling water and swell. Soaking softens the grains and reduces grittiness, so the finished bread is more tender.

“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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Heavenly Corn Bread