Why it works: Buttermilk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Egg Bread
Ingredients
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).
Mix and bake
In a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, buttermilk, lard, baking soda, salt, and egg until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve
Serve hot with fresh buttermilk.
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.
-
Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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 gritty, corn-forward texture of the bread.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Cornbread dries out quickly once its starches set, so pulling it too late makes it crumbly and dry. Check for golden color and a set center rather than relying only on the time range.
“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.
More cornbread recipes
You might also like
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes
Potato Bread124 recipes
Nut Bread109 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.