Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Spoon 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.
Prepare the batter
Pour boiling water over the cornmeal to scald it.
Let the mixture cool.
Stir in the shortening, salt, and beaten eggs; mix well.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a well-greased deep pan.
Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven 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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White cornmeal
- Forms the bulk of the bread and gives it its corn flavor and coarse texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Shortening
- Adds fat for tenderness and a moist crumb, with butter as a preferred alternative.
The step that matters
Scalding the cornmeal. Pouring boiling water over the cornmeal softens and hydrates the grains so the bread is moist rather than gritty. Letting it cool before adding the eggs keeps the beaten eggs from scrambling and keeps the batter at a workable temperature.
“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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