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 ↓
Hominy 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Break up the hominy in a bowl.
Beat the eggs lightly and pour them over the hominy.
Melt the butter and stir it into the mixture.
Add milk or water and mix well.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until the top is light brown, being careful not to overbake.
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).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Hominy
- Forms the body of the bread, giving it a starchy, hearty texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, and contributes to browning on top.
The step that matters
Bake until just light brown. Overbaking dries out the egg and starch mixture, making the bread crumbly and tough. Pulling it when the top is light brown keeps it moist while the centre sets.
“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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