Name: Steamed Corn Bread
Ingredients: 1 pint white Southern cornmeal (or other meal); 1 teacup sifted flour; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons butter; 3 to 4 teaspoons baking powder; 1 tablespoon molasses or brown sugar; sweet milk or warm water (as needed)

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 ↓

Steamed Corn Bread

Ingredients

1 pint white Southern cornmeal (or other meal)
1 teacup sifted flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter
3 to 4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon molasses or brown sugar
sweet milk or warm water (as needed)

Directions

Prepare the batter

In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, and baking powder.
Add the egg, butter, and molasses or brown sugar.
Wet the mixture with sweet milk or warm water to form a batter similar to Johnny cake.

Steam and serve

Transfer the batter to a basin and place it in a steamer.
Steam for 30 minutes or until cooked through.
Keep in the steamer until ready to serve and enjoy hot, preferably with maple syrup.

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).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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: Provides the main body and the coarse, grainy texture of the bread.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Baking powder: Releases gas to lift the batter so the cornbread rises and stays light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a richer mouthfeel.
Molasses or brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a deeper flavor, and helps the crumb brown slightly.

The step that matters

Keep the batter wet enough when adding liquid. Cornmeal and flour absorb liquid unevenly, so adding milk or water gradually until the batter pours like a thick Johnny cake batter keeps the crumb moist. Too dry a batter steams up dense and crumbly.

“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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Steamed Corn Bread