Name: Virginia Sour Milk Batter Bread
Ingredients: ½ pint cornmeal; 1 cup clabber (sour milk); 1 tablespoon melted butter; 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); ½ tablespoon baking soda; ½ cup clabber (sour milk) for dissolving baking soda

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 ↓

Virginia Sour Milk Batter Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

½ pint cornmeal
1 cup clabber (sour milk)
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
½ tablespoon baking soda
½ cup clabber (sour milk) for dissolving baking soda

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.

Make the batter

Scald the cornmeal and let it cool.
Beat the cooled cornmeal into 1 cup of clabber.
Add the melted butter, flour, and salt; mix well.
In a separate bowl, dissolve the baking soda in ½ cup of clabber. Add the baking soda mixture to the batter and mix thoroughly.

Bake

Pour the batter into a well-buttered pudding dish.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 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).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cornmeal: Forms the body of the bread and gives it its coarse, grainy texture.
Clabber (sour milk): Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic clabber to produce carbon dioxide, causing the bread to rise.
Melted butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda mixture. Baking soda must be dissolved fully and mixed thoroughly into the acidic clabber batter so the gas forms evenly; uneven mixing leaves dense pockets or bitter spots and poor rise.

“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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Virginia Sour Milk Batter Bread