Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Improved Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine sour milk, beaten eggs, shortening, molasses, salt, and baking soda.
Gradually add cornmeal until you achieve a stiff batter.
Bake
Grease a baking pan well.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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 + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Egg + molassestop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,879 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Sour milk
- Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that helps the cornbread rise.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deeper color as the cornbread browns.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the batter and gives the bread its texture and structure.
The step that matters
Gradually add cornmeal until the batter is stiff. Adding cornmeal a little at a time lets you judge the consistency. Too much cornmeal makes the batter dry and dense, while too little leaves it loose and slow to set.
“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.
More cornbread recipes
You might also like
Molasses Sauce32 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.