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Baked Cheese and Corn

A baked casserole of cheese, corn, and eggs, flavored with pepper and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Baked Cheese and Corn

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the fat in a saucepan.

  2. Add the chopped pepper, cornstarch, milk, salt, and pepper; cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the corn, cheese, and ketchup; mix well.

Bake

  1. Add the slightly beaten egg yolks and the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the mixture, while whipped whites lift it and give the casserole a light, airy set.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth sauce that holds the corn and cheese together.
Cheese
Adds richness and flavor, and melts into the sauce to help it set and brown.
Cooked corn
Provides sweetness and body, giving the casserole its main texture and flavor.
Skim milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg whites. Whites must be stiffly beaten and folded in gently so they keep their trapped air. Deflating them makes the casserole dense instead of light and puffed as it bakes.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, pepper, corn, cheese, egg, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, corn, cheese, egg, ketchup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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