Name: Boiled Green Corn
Ingredients: Fresh evergreen corn (Stowell's variety); Water; Cream (optional); Cold gravy (optional); Fresh butter (optional)

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Boiled Green Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the husks and silks from the corn.
Drop the ears into boiling water, covering them completely.
Boil for 20 to 25 minutes, until the milk is fully set.
Lift the corn out with a fork and drop it into a basin of cold water for 1-2 minutes.
Transfer the corn to a tureen, cover, and serve.
Before eating, split the grains with a sharp knife to release the kernels from the cob.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Corn + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).