Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Pudding
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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Remove the kernels from the corn and set aside.
Make the batter
In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the sugar, salt, and milk.
Stir in the corn and melted butter until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set and lightly golden.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Walnut + corntop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together349 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,832 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Beaten egg sets the custard, giving the pudding its structure and a tender, sliceable body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the egg proteins set into a soft, custardy texture.
- Corn
- Supplies the main body and natural sweetness, with pieces that stay tender as the pudding sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the texture and helps the pudding taste rich and smooth.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top turn lightly golden as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Egg proteins set as the custard heats. Stopping when the centre is just set and the top is lightly golden keeps it creamy. Overbaking squeezes out liquid and makes the texture grainy and dry.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, butter, corn):
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits about as well
- Peanutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, butter, corn. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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