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 ↓
Baked Hominy
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 base
Heat the milk in a double boiler and add the hominy.
Cook for 1½ hours.
Let the mixture stand until lukewarm, then add the salt and beaten eggs.
Bake
Turn the mixture into a well-greased baking dish.
Bake for 25 minutes 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.
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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Milk + eggtop 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 dish as its starch softens during long, gentle cooking.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the hominy and gives a creamy, moist texture.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the mixture into a firm, sliceable custard.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs after the mixture cools. Eggs added to very hot mixture can scramble or curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Letting it cool to lukewarm first lets the eggs blend smoothly and set evenly in the oven.
“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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