Name: Corn Pudding
Ingredients: 12 ears of corn, grated; 1 cup milk; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon sugar (optional, if corn is very sweet); 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

12 ears of corn, grated
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (optional, if corn is very sweet)
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

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

Make the batter

Grate the corn and place it in a baking dish.
Add the milk, salt, sugar (if using), and butter to the corn, then mix everything together well.

Bake

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 45 minutes.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Corn: Provides the main bulk, natural sweetness, and moisture for the pudding.
Milk: Adds liquid that moistens the corn and helps form a tender, custardy texture.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the corn and supports browning in the oven.

“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.