Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Stewed Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Husk and clean the corn, then soak it in cold water for 15 minutes.
With a sharp knife, split each row of grains from stem to tip, then shave them off down to the cob.
Cook and serve
Cover the corn with hot water in a saucepan and stew slowly for 20 minutes.
Stir in the butter, salt, and pepper, then serve.
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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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the stewed corn a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Stew slowly in hot water. Gentle, sustained simmering softens the starches and milk-sugars in the corn so the kernels become tender and sweet. Boiling hard can toughen the kernels and cause them to burst or dry out.
“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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