Name: Indian Corn Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups white Indian cornmeal; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons oil or butter

Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Indian Corn Bread

Ingredients

2 cups white Indian cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil or butter

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, sugar, and salt.
Add the oil or melted butter and stir until combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

White indian cornmeal: Forms the bulk of the bread and sets the crumb as it bakes.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
Oil or butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and a richer flavor.

“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.