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Bread

Corn Bread with Rye

A quick cornbread made with rye flour, cornmeal, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Corn Bread with Rye

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix the cornmeal, salt, rye flour, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. In another bowl, combine the milk, beaten egg, and melted shortening.

  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pan and let it stand in a warm place for 20 to 26 minutes.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 to 45 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. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Cornmeal
Provides the main body and coarse, gritty texture of the cornbread.
Rye flour
Adds a earthy flavour and some structure, though its gluten is weaker than wheat flour's.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the crumb as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cornbread rises and turns light.
Shortening
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist, rich crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and adds moisture and softness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Letting the batter stand before baking. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it gets wet, so the batter should go into the oven promptly after standing to keep the rise. Leaving it too long lets much of that lift escape before the structure sets in the heat.

“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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