Name: Corn Bread for Young Poultry
Ingredients: 3 pints sour milk or buttermilk; 2 large teaspoons baking soda; ½ cup hot water; 1 tablespoon salt; 1½ pints wheat bran; 3 pints fine corn meal; 4 tablespoons melted lard

Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Bread for Young Poultry

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.

Mix the batter

Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.
In a large bowl, mix the sour milk or buttermilk, salt, and the dissolved baking soda.
Add the wheat bran and corn meal, then mix in the melted lard.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a dripping pan.
Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

When serving, moisten with hot sweet milk or water and sprinkle with black pepper.

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.

Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour milk or buttermilk: Provides acid that reacts with baking soda and moisture for the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid to release gas, helping the cornbread rise.
Fine corn meal: Forms the main body and structure of the cornbread.
Wheat bran: Absorbs liquid and adds a coarser, hearty texture.
Melted lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavour.

“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.