Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Combine cornmeal, salt, and lard in a bowl.
Pour boiling water over the mixture, stirring until all cornmeal is moistened.
Add sour milk mixed with baking soda until the mixture reaches a mush-like consistency.
Separate the eggs, beat the whites and yolks separately, then combine and beat again.
Fold the egg mixture into the batter until it is slightly thicker than pancake batter.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a well-greased hot pan.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden.
Cut into squares and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the bread and gives it its characteristic grainy texture and flavor.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter set and hold together as it bakes.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity, which reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas, lightening the crumb and helping it rise.
- Lard
- Adds fat, tenderizing the crumb and contributing to browning in the pan.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into a well-greased hot pan. A hot, greased pan starts the crust setting and browning immediately, so the bread releases cleanly and rises evenly instead of sticking or spreading.
“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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