Why it works: Buttermilk and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,973 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Egg Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until light.
Add baking soda, clabber or buttermilk, salt, and sugar.
Stir in enough cornmeal to make a thin batter.
Bake
Heat lard in a pan, turning to coat the bottom.
Drain the lard into the batter and stir well.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake.
Set the bread at the bottom of the stove until it rises, then move to the top.
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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Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttermilktop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,986 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and lift as the bread sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic clabber or buttermilk to produce gas that makes the bread rise.
- Clabber or buttermilk
- Adds acidity to activate the baking soda and contributes moisture and tenderness.
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the bread and gives it its characteristic corn flavour and texture.
- Lard
- Adds fat for a crisp, browned crust and helps keep the bread from sticking.
The step that matters
Stir in the lard and cornmeal gently and bake promptly. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic milk, so the batter should go into the hot pan quickly, before the gas escapes and the rise weakens.
“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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