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 ↓
White Corn Bread
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 batter
Thoroughly scald the cornmeal with boiling water.
In a bowl, mix the scalded cornmeal with butter and a well-beaten egg.
Add milk until the batter is thin enough to flow over the pan.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased pan, making it an inch thick.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Egg + milktop 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
- Cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its grainy, crumbly structure.
- Egg
- Binds the batter together and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps the crust brown.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it spreads evenly in the pan.
The step that matters
Scalding the cornmeal. Pouring boiling water over the cornmeal softens and hydrates the grains before baking. Unscalded cornmeal stays gritty and can give a dry, coarse crumb.
“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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