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Polenta, a l’Italienne

Polenta made with milk, salt, maize meal, Parmesan cheese, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Polenta, a l’Italienne

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the polenta

  1. Boil the milk in a pot.

  2. Add salt to the boiling milk.

  3. Gradually stir in maize meal until thick.

  4. Continue stirring and boiling until smooth.

  5. Add grated Parmesan cheese and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 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.

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

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

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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 that the maize meal swells and thickens in.
Golden maize meal
Provides the starch and body that thickens the mixture into a firm polenta.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and fat, and helps the mixture set with richness.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in maize meal until thick. Adding maize meal too fast can form lumps that stay dry inside. Stirring constantly while adding it lets the starch hydrate evenly, giving a smooth, thick texture.

“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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