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Dessert

Southern Spoon Cornbread

A quick cornbread made with cornmeal, water, milk, eggs, butter, and salt, baked in a greased dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Southern Spoon Cornbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Pour boiling water over cornmeal and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Add melted butter, beaten eggs, water, milk, and salt. Mix well.

  3. Pour into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 30 minutes at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Leave in dish and serve with a spoon.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 base of the batter and gives the cornbread its body and grainy texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a sliceable structure as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps browning in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the cornmeal and water for 5 minutes while stirring. Boiling cornmeal in water gelatinizes its starch, which softens the grains and helps the bread hold moisture. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“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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