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 ↓
Corn Breads
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and melted butter.
Add the beaten eggs and mix for 2 minutes.
Stir in the milk and salt.
Combine the white Indian meal and flour with the baking powder, then sift into the mixture.
Beat the batter for 1 minute to aerate it.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a shallow pan.
Bake until golden brown, then cut into squares and serve hot.
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.
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Butter + milktop 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 + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- White indian meal
- Provides the main cornmeal body and characteristic corn flavour of the bread.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-forming structure so the bread holds its shape when cut.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the bread rises and becomes light.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps the crumb feel moist.
- Milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients into a batter and adds softness and browning from milk sugars.
The step that matters
Beat the batter for 1 minute to aerate it. Beating incorporates air bubbles that expand in the oven and help lift the batter. Overbeating after the flour is added can develop gluten and make the bread tough, so keep this brief.
“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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