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 Bread
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.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the cornmeal and flour smoothly with the sour milk.
Add the melted butter, molasses (or sugar), and salt, and mix well.
Incorporate the beaten eggs into the mixture.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and add it to the batter, mixing thoroughly.
Bake
Pour the batter into well-buttered tins and bake for nearly an hour at 350°F (175°C).
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and butter 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 bulk of the crumb and gives cornbread its characteristic texture and flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the bread holds together better than cornmeal alone.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Molasses or sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter and lighten its crumb.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and mix thoroughly. Baking soda must be fully dispersed so it reacts evenly with the sour milk's acid. Unevenly mixed soda leaves bitter pockets and dense or uneven rising.
“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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