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Dessert

Sweet Corn Bread

A moist, sweet bread made with cornmeal, buttermilk, molasses, and lard, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sweet Corn Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, buttermilk, and salt well.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in a little warm water and melt the lard.

  3. Add the dissolved soda and melted lard to the molasses; beat quickly.

  4. Combine the molasses mixture with the batter, stirring vigorously.

Steam and brown

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pudding mold.

  2. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  3. Remove the cover and place in a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown.

Finish and serve

  1. When done, rub the top with a little butter, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes.

  2. Turn out and serve warm, slicing with a sharp, thin knife.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 coarse, crumbly structure of the bread.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-forming structure so the bread holds together.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acid to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist crumb.

The step that matters

Combining the soda with the molasses mixture. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets acid and liquid, so the batter should be mixed quickly and placed into the mold without delay to trap the bubbles and lift the bread.

“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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